The University of Illinois was awarded a $650,000 Project Grant from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) federal grant program. The four-year grant will fund research to develop an improved vaccine candidate for Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus (PRRSV), a significant pathogen affecting the U.S. pork industry. Key areas of focus include removing viral interferon antagonism and NF-κB activation to lessen clinical outcomes during bacterial co-infection, enhancing immune responses given PRRSV antigenic heterogeneity, and preventing RNA recombination between the vaccine and circulating field viruses. The research aims to generate a recombination-negative PRRSV vaccine with improved efficacy against this economically important livestock disease.
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