Demand for Taenia solium Cysticercosis Vaccine: Lessons and Insights From the Pig Production and Trading Nodes of the Uganda Pig Value Chain.

Taenia solium cysticercosis disease remains a key challenge to the pig sector in low- and middle-income countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and South East Asia, resulting in both economic losses and public health impacts. The World Health Organization has ranked it first on the global scale of foodborne parasites. A One Health approach has been recommended for reduction of infection pressure and eradication in the longer term. A new vaccine TSOL18 (Cysvax™), applied in combination with oxfendazole (Paranthic 10%™), a dewormer drug has been developed and field tested for the control of T. solium cysticercosis, with high potential to break the disease cycle. It is however unclear whether the products can be marketed through a market driven approach, and if smallholder pig farmers would be willing to take up and pay for the vaccine-oxfendazole combination. A choice experiment methodology was used to assess the potential demand and willingness to pay for the vaccine-oxfendazole combination by Ugandan smallholder pig farmers, and demand for vaccinated pigs by pig traders. The results showed that farmers highly valued quality assurance attributes and were not keen on the vaccine if there were no associated returns in the form of premium price for vaccinated pigs during sales. They were willing to pay US$ 2.31 for the vaccine if it resulted in a premium price for vaccinated pigs. Furthermore, they preferred an accompanying vaccine viability detector as part of its quality assurance. The pig traders on the other hand preferred high carcass weight of pigs, potentially achieved by using oxfendazole. The results show that unless the pig market systems pay a premium price for vaccinated pigs, and quality assurance systems guarantee quality vaccine, uptake of the TSOL18 vaccine and oxfendazole by farmers through market mechanisms may be unsuccessful. The current pig marketing system does not reward food safety, the focus is mainly on carcass weight. Alternative delivery mechanisms for the vaccine through a mix of private-public investments needs to be explored, as the benefits of vaccinated pigs are societal and include reduction and elimination of neurocysticercosis in the long run.

Contagious Bovine and Caprine Pleuropneumonia: a research community's recommendations for the development of better vaccines.

Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP) and contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP) are major infectious diseases of ruminants caused by mycoplasmas in Africa and Asia. In contrast with the limited pathology in the respiratory tract of humans infected with mycoplasmas, CBPP and CCPP are devastating diseases associated with high morbidity and mortality. Beyond their obvious impact on animal health, CBPP and CCPP negatively impact the livelihood and wellbeing of a substantial proportion of livestock-dependent people affecting their culture, economy, trade and nutrition. The causative agents of CBPP and CCPP are Mycoplasma mycoides subspecies mycoides and Mycoplasma capricolum subspecies capripneumoniae, respectively, which have been eradicated in most of the developed world. The current vaccines used for disease control consist of a live attenuated CBPP vaccine and a bacterin vaccine for CCPP, which were developed in the 1960s and 1980s, respectively. Both of these vaccines have many limitations, so better vaccines are urgently needed to improve disease control. In this article the research community prioritized biomedical research needs related to challenge models, rational vaccine design and protective immune responses. Therefore, we scrutinized the current vaccines as well as the challenge-, pathogenicity- and immunity models. We highlight research gaps and provide recommendations towards developing safer and more efficacious vaccines against CBPP and CCPP.

Evaluation of new generation macrolides for the treatment and metaphylaxis of contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP) in cattle experimentally infected with Mycoplasma mycoides subspecies mycoides.

BACKGROUND: Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP) caused by Mycoplasma mycoides subspecies mycoides (Mmm) is an important disease of cattle that causes serious economic losses. With the known effectiveness of new generation macrolides, tulathromycin and gamithromycin were assessed in comparison with oxytetracycline as a positive control and saline as a negative control for effectiveness in inhibiting lung lesion development, promoting resolution, preventing spread and bacteriological clearance in susceptible local cattle breeds in two separate studies in Kenya and Zambia. Animals were monitored for clinical signs, sero-conversion as well as detailed post-mortem examination for CBPP lesions. RESULTS: Using the Hudson and Turner score for lesion type and size, tulathromycin protected 90%, gamithromycin 80%, and oxytetracycline 88% of treated animals in Kenya. In Zambia, all animals (100%) treated with macrolides were free of lung lesions, while oxytetracycline protected 77.5%. Using the mean adapted Hudson and Turner score, which includes clinical signs, post-mortem findings and serology, tulathromycin protected 82%, gamithromycin 56% and oxytetracycline 80% of the animals in Kenya whereas in Zambia, tulathromycin protected 98%, gamithromycin 94% and oxytetracycline 80%. The saline-treated groups had 93 and 92% lesions in Kenya and Zambia respectively, with Mmm recovered from 5/14 in Kenya and 10/13 animals in Zambia. Whereas the groups treated with macrolides were free from lesions in Zambia, in Kenya 5/15 tulathromycin-treated animals and 6/15 gamithromycin-treated animals showed lesions. Oxytetracycline-treated animals showed similarities with 3/14 and 4/15 showing lesions in Zambia and Kenya respectively and Mmm recovery from one animal in Kenya and six in Zambia. In both studies, lesion scores of saline-treated groups were significantly higher than those of the antibiotic treated groups (p < 0.001). In sentinel animals, CBPP lesions were detected and Mmm recovered from one and two animals mixed with the saline-treated groups in Kenya and Zambia respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that tulathromycin, a mycoplasmacidal, can achieve metaphylactic protection of up to 80%, while non-recovery of Mmm from sentinels suggests macrolides effectiveness in preventing spread of Mmm. It is recommended that further studies are conducted to evaluate strategies comparing vaccination alone or combining vaccination and antibiotics to control or eradicate CBPP.