Title: Use of the goat model to test human Brucella vaccines in Argentina
Funding Institution: National Institutes of Health (NIH). International research scientist development award (IRSDA/K01).
Description: The goal of this research project is the development of vaccines against Brucella infection that are safe and efficacious. The use of live attenuated organisms are generally considered to be the vaccine of choice for intracellular bacteria such as Brucella spp. Routine testing of potential Brucella vaccines utilizes the mouse model to evaluate virulence and immune protection, however, mice fail to exhibit the outward signs of “Brucella” infection. As a result, the next step in the evaluation of vaccine candidates has been in the target species. For human vaccine development, this might suggest the use of nonhuman primates at this stage of evaluation. However, evaluation of vaccines may be performed in a small ruminant model such as sheep or goats to eliminate candidates that produce symptoms associated with disease including abortion, providing an ultimate evaluation of safety. These experiments in goats in Argentina, a country in which brucellosis is endemic, are expected to provide the support for experimentation to test these candidates in nonhuman primates with the ultimate goal of developing a Brucella vaccine that is safe and efficacious for human use.