Third Party Funds Group - Overall project
Acronym: KHV-Vacc
Start date : 01.10.2015
End date : 30.09.2019
Pond aquaculture of carp provides a supply of fish products in high quality to consumers from a local and sustainable production. In addition, in some areas of Germany, carp farms are main components of the traditional landscape, have great importance for water budget and wildlife habitat and offer qualified places of employment in less structured areas. In several parts of Germany, carp farming is severely affected by Koi Herpesvirus Disease (KHVD), caused by the infection of carp with the Cyprinid herpesvirus 3 (CyHV-3), also known as Koi Herpesvirus, KHV). Outbreaks of the disease may cause severe economic losses due to associated mortality of infected carp, costs for destruction of affected fish, disinfection of affected ponds and subsequent shortfall of earnings from carp production. This situation severely challenges the economic basis of affected farms and may even result in closing down the operation. Currently, no measures for prevention or cure of this disease are available in order to reduce the economic losses for the farmers. Thus, valid and effective tools for monitoring and controlling of this virus disease and effective combat against the virus are needed. The main obstacles are:
• Available diagnostic procedures relay on the detection of virus DNA and do not allow recognizing the presence of infective virus particles;
• Effective vaccines for a reduction of losses and a prevention of further distribution of the infection are lacking.
Aim of the proposed study: In order to develop strategies to contain the disease from endemic areas and to protect naive carp populations in virus free areas, an improvement of diagnostic procedures and preventive measures are needed. Therefore, we aim at:
• Improvement of the diagnostics of a CyHV-3 infection by means of cell culture systems
• Development of new vaccination concepts including new adjuvants, which effectively prevent losses and would allow discriminate vaccinated populations from latently / persistently infected populations
Working program:
For this purpose, we are planning to