Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** this sbir phase II project builds…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** this sbir phase II project builds on results of a previous sbir phase I project, wherein, we employed a proprietary discovery tool to identify vaccine components (PROTEINS) shared by diverse streptococcus suis variants (SEROTYPES) that cause disease in different regions of the world. Specifically, we demonstrated that a vaccine comprised of a panel of such shared PROTEINS, derived from one variant was able to protect vaccinated pigs against infection with a different variant. In this phase II component, we plan to further optimize vaccine formuation and the immunization regimen and evaluate the ability of this vaccine to protect vaccinated pigs against 15 different variants that predominantly cause disease in different geographical regions. These phase II studies will be performed in collaboration with two ames, IA-based entities: veterinary resources, INC., a veterinary CRO that performs livestock vaccine studies for entities across the united sates; and arko labs, a well-established veterinary vaccines entity with a track record of development and commercialization of livestock vaccines. An economical and efficacious vaccine capable of conferring robust cross protection will be both attractive to PIG farmers and significantly reduce economic losses to pork producers across north america / globally. The vaccine will also positively impact public health by decreasing incidence of human infection / disease, since pigs carry the pathogen asymptomatically and are a primary source of human infection, which can result in serous complications if not promptly diagnosed and treated.