Moredun and ECO Animal Health Ltd to tackle poultry red mite

Moredun and ECO Animal Health working together to tackle poultry red mite

Red mites aggregating in a barn.

Moredun Research Institute has entered a research partnership with ECO Animal Health Ltd., a leader in the development, registration, and marketing of pharmaceutical products for global animal health markets. This research involves an exciting project which uses ‘reverse vaccinology’ to develop an effective first-in-class vaccine solution for the sustainable control of poultry red mite.

Poultry red mite (PRM; Dermanyssus gallinae) is a blood-feeding parasite that has considerable welfare and production implications for both commercial laying hens and backyard flocks. The mites live ‘off host’ in the cracks and crevices of the poultry house, emerging in darkness to feed on hens. Red mites are related to ticks and several life stages of the mite are blood-feeding. Adult females will feed every 3 to 4 days to produce 30 eggs in their lifetime, on average. In ideal conditions, PRM can develop from an egg to a sexually mature adult in just 7 days. With such an efficient lifecycle, mite numbers in poultry houses can be massive; in severe infestations, numbers can range between 200,000 and 500,000 mites per hen.

Given the large blood requirement of an individual mite and their population numbers, PRM infestation is one of the emerging and important causes of production losses in laying hens and has a major impact on animal welfare. Poultry red mites also serve as vectors for several disease-causing bacteria and viruses in poultry. Their ubiquitous presence threatens the poultry industry globally, as there are no effective long-term non-chemical solutions available for the prevention of PRM infestation in poultry.

Pesticides are currently being used by poultry producers to treat and therefore limit the losses due to heavy PRM infestation. However, this comes with associated potential risks including chemical residues in eggs and meat and development of drug resistance. Heavy PRM infestation is reported in the EU and UK, and this is expected to increase because of animal husbandry legislation changes, increased treatment resistance, climate warming, all of which is hampered by the current lack of a sustainable approach to PRM control.

The reverse vaccinology approach uses knowledge of the mites’ genetic make-up, computer-based predictions of where mite proteins are found and what they do, high throughput vaccine production and screening of prototype vaccines for early vaccine discovery. Mite proteins which may eventually be components of the vaccine (“antigens”) are initially identified using computer-based algorithms to predict appropriate proteins from whole genomes. For this reason, a complete parasite genome is the preferred starting point and, to facilitate this approach for PRM, we recently produced the first draft genome for the parasite. The other components of reverse vaccinology – i) capacity to produce synthetic antigens and ii) robust animal models for the testing of candidate antigens - are both available for testing of prototype vaccines against PRM at Moredun, the latter as a result of our NC3Rsfunded development of an “on-hen feeding device” for this species.

Moredun therefore has the worldleading technologies, tools, expertise, and experience in working with PRM and in parasite vaccine development to tackle this difficult issue. The resulting prototype vaccine will target functions that are important to PRM development, viability, and fertility. Both parties are excited about the potential of this innovation to help address a significant unmet need and improve animal welfare in the poultry industry. The project, which started in July 2022 and will run for a 3-year period, is already revealing novel aspects of the parasite’s biology to target in a new vaccine approach.

Under the terms of the partnership, Moredun will conduct the sponsored research project over a period of 36 months. If the programme is successful, ECO may take the option of developing, registering, and commercialising the vaccine under a worldwide exclusive license from Moredun.

David Hallas, Chief Executive of ECO said: “Once again, our R&D team has successfully concluded an agreement to partner with a leading research institute, in this case MRI, to develop a vaccine solution to PRM. If successful, the vaccine has very significant potential globally and would have substantial animal health benefits.”

Dr Alasdair Nisbet, Director of Research and Innovation at Moredun, commented:

“We are delighted to have entered this research partnership with ECO and we have all the tools and expertise ready to move towards a new intervention for this parasite and to support the global poultry industry.”

Moredun members can access our fact sheet “Poultry Red Mite” (2022) on our website: https://moredun.org.uk/resources/ factsheets/5846