The Vaccine Group (TVG) announced in September 2024 that its partnership with the University of Plymouth and the University of Cambridge has been awarded “significant” government funding to develop a vaccine to stop the development and spread of Streptococcus suis. Streptococcus suis is a bacterial infection that commonly affects the UK pig population. It can cause serious disease in pigs and has the potential to infect the humans working with them.
Streptococcus suis
Affecting more than 60% of pig farms across several countries in Europe, Streptococcus suis threatens both the pork industry and public health. It is a “noteworthy” pathogen responsible for significant bacterial mortality in piglets after weaning. There are no proven vaccines to address the disease’s “many strains”, and infected pigs are treated with different antibiotics.
The UK Government is targeting a 50% reduction in antibiotic use in livestock by 2030, so TVG is responding to the urgent demand for an effective vaccine. Their project will assess if a vaccine candidate that is already effective against the most common strain of the disease can protect pigs against multiple, or all, known strains. This has potential to also prevent transmission to humans.
DEFRA’s Farming Innovation Programme is providing a grant of over £1 million through Innovate UK. The project will unite experts from vaccine development, antimicrobial resistance, and veterinary medicine; it develops previous research that identified the potential candidate for the Streptococcus suis vaccine. Trials will be carried out with Moredun Scientific Ltd to explore the vaccine’s potential. The team will engage the pig farming community in their research to ensure that the vaccine meets requirements and can be administered in an “efficient and cost-effective manner”.
Dr Jeremy Salt, CEO at The Vaccine Group, described Streptococcus suis as a “major cause for concern” for farmers across the UK. It can lead to “significant losses”. Furthermore, as a zoonotic infection, it presents a risk of transmission to humans in the industry.
“Our goal in developing an effective vaccine is to stop the bacterial infection from developing in pigs and humans in the first place. By doing so, we can better protect the farmers, their animals, and their livelihoods.”
Dr Salt also hopes to make pork production “more efficient, human, and sustainable”, whilst helping the sector “address the global challenges of antibiotic resistance and carbon emissions”.
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