Grant: Proof of Principle Program - Phase II

Salmonella species continue to be a major threat to the food and water safety of Canadians. Much of the reason for human infection arises from contaminated food and water sources from poultry and other agricultural animals. With a CIHR PoP I Grant, initial findings were made to characterize a highly effective Salmonella vaccine that showed efficacy in both murine infection models as well as in the poultry carriage model. In addition, the vaccine components were biochemically enriched and a protective subset identified. In partnership with Bioniche, this CIHR Proof of Principle Grant Phase II will complete further preclinical work with this vaccine needed for commercialization. This includes further studies with murine, chicken, pig, and cattle Salmonella infection models, as well as further characterizing the vaccine components and the immune response elicited by this vaccine. Protection for various Salmonella species (S. Typhimurium and S. Entertidis) will be tested in relevant animal infections. Bioniche is committed to commercializing this as an agricultural Salmonella vaccine to complement their successful and licensed E. coli O157 cattle vaccine developed by the same team to improve food and water safety of Canadians.