Journal of Vaccines & Vaccination

Genetically Engineered Pea Seeds Protect Against Parasites

International Conference & Exhibition on Vaccines & Vaccination

22-24 Nov 2011 Philadelphia Airport Marriott, USA

Sergej M. Kiprijanov

Accepted Abstracts: J Vaccines Vaccin

Abstract:

Coccidiosis caused by protozoans of genus Eimeria is a chicken parasitic disease of great economical importance. Conventional disease control strategies depend on vaccination and prophylactic use of anticoccidial drugs. Alternative solution to prevent and treat coccidiosis could be provided by passive immunization using orally delivered neutralizing antibodies. We developed a strategy to mitigate the parasitic infection by feeding poultry with antibody expressing transgenic crop seeds. Using the phage display antibody library, a panel of anti- Eimeria single-chain Fv (scFv) antibody fragments with high sporozoite-neutralizing activity was generated. Th ese antibodies were expressed in seeds of transgenic pea plants. Force-feeding experiments demonstrated that oral delivery of fl our prepared from the transgenic pea seeds had high parasite neutralizing activity in infected chickens. Th e pea seed content was found to protect antibodies against degradation by gastrointestinal proteases (>100-fold gain in stability). Ad libitum feeding of chickens demonstrated that the transgenic seeds were well consumed and not shunned. Furthermore, feeding poultry with shred prepared from the antibody expressing pea seeds led to signifi cant mitigation of infection caused both by high and low challenge doses of Eimeria oocysts. Th e results suggest that our strategy off ers a general approach to control parasitic infections in production animals using cost-eff ective antibody expression in crop seeds aff ordable for the animal health market.