Washington State University program to provide animal vaccines in Africa with $35 million in federal funding

Washington State University is leading a $35 million federal effort to improve animal vaccine delivery in east Africa and south Asia.

The university’s newly announced Feed the Future Veterinary Vaccine Delivery Innovation Lab is funded by the United States Agency for International Development. Over the next five years, it will develop vaccine improvements aimed at making them more available to animals in Kenya, Tanzania and Nepal.

The initiative will prioritize livestock diseases affecting cattle, sheep, goats and chickens.

Program director and WSU veterinary medicine professor Felix Lankester said that by vaccinating more livestock, the human lives of those in these countries will improve.

“People’s lives and livelihoods are intimately related to their livestock in lower- and middle-income countries. By improving animal health, we are hoping to improve household health and food security of livestock owners,” he said.

The lab will work with nine other universities across the three countries and include a team of 30 experts.

One focus of the program is the development of vaccines that do not need to be stored at cold temperatures. These vaccines would make the medicine more available to those who live in “resource-poor areas,” Lankester said.

The program also hopes to develop vaccines that treat more than one disease, are effective with a single dose and can be administered through microneedle patches that slowly release the vaccine into the animal.

“These diseases affect livestock in many lower- to middle-income countries. If we are able to develop new formulations that are effective, improve accessibility and availability of vaccines, then the impact would be significant and impact many, many people and livestock around the world,” Lankester said.

The program will also explore how to increase local investments and government support for veterinary health services.

“We will generate evidence that will support decisions on investments by governments and the private sector that improve the resilience, nutrition status and opportunities of many livestock dependent communities,” program principal investigator Thumbi Mwangi said.