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A successful history

The nanoparticle-based mRNA vaccine was developed by a team drawn from the NSW Department of Primary Industries and biotech firm Tiba Biotech, with significant financial support from Meat & Livestock Australia. The team is addressing several biosecurity threats of concern to Australian farmers.

Unlike traditional vaccines, which are made using weakened or inactivated versions of a virus, mRNA vaccines are fully synthetic, sterile and safer to produce. This is the same mRNA technology that helped combat COVID-19.

“Conventional FMD vaccines involve growing the actual virus in large quantities, which poses risks in itself,” Prof. Thordarson says.

“Unfortunately, this occasionally goes wrong. Outbreaks have occurred from FMD vaccine factories.

“With mRNA, there’s no live virus. It's man-made RNA; there are no cells involved in making it.

“The mRNA code for a fragment of a protein on the surface of the virus sends instructions to the animal’s immune system, which will then recognise and stop the virus when it gets challenged by it.”

He says a previous project by the same consortium using similar mRNA technology successfully targeted border disease virus (BDV), an endemic illness in Australian sheep.

While that project served as a proof of concept, the FMD vaccine will most likely be the first to go full scale, with the goal of providing rapid-response protection against diseases that haven’t yet breached Australian borders.

“The ���������¼� RNA Institute will be working with Tiba and the NSW Department of Primary Industries for the next few months to develop the processes required for upscaling the FMD production,” says Prof. Thordarson.

Overseas trials in Germany, where FMD is already present, showed otherwise healthy but vaccinated cattle did not get infected when challenged with the virus.

“The team was able to show that the mRNA vaccine seems to work for them,” Prof. Thordarson says.

Emergency use only

The vaccine was developed to get ahead of an emergency. It is now undergoing further tests to demonstrate the planned manufacturing process meets Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) standards.

“While we’re involved in pre-clinical development, our main role is to scale up the vaccine and accelerate its journey from the lab to a local mass scale production,” Prof. Thordarson says.

“Because with an outbreak, you need 100,000 or even a million doses, not just a few dozen.

“We can ‘ring fence’ it with vaccines and very quickly get rid of it. We don't have to do it the same way as the British had to – with a mass culling of animals.”

Until a dedicated certified RNA manufacturing facility in Macquarie Park becomes fully operational next year, ���������¼�’s labs serve as a vital contingency production site.

“It’s enough to kickstart an emergency response and contain an outbreak before it spirals,” Prof. Thordarson says.

This is particularly important for diseases like FMD, but also lumpy skin disease – another major biosecurity threat to Australia.

While FMD disfigures the hooves and mouths of infected animals, lumpy skin disease is a severe pox-like condition that causes painful sores across the body.

These diseases are not only devastating in terms of animal welfare, but also for trade. The current vaccine project will target both diseases.

A new era in disease control

Australia’s red meat and livestock exports contribute around $80 billion to the economy each year.

“The main reason why we have these markets is that other countries don't want to buy beef from countries that have disease, because they are trying to keep their own herds immune,” Prof. Thordarson says.

“But it’s not just about stopping disease. This is also about protecting livelihoods and keeping our own supermarket shelves stocked.”

Looking ahead, Prof. Thordarson sees potential for broader uses of mRNA vaccines in agriculture – not just for emergencies, but for everyday disease prevention.

This includes bird flu and swine viruses, which can cross-mutate with the human influenza virus.

“Many serious flu pandemics have started this way,” Prof. Thordarson says.

“But in its own right, bird flu is already a big problem in agriculture, especially with poultry.”

Bird flu caused supply chain disruptions in Australia this year, with chicken culls resulting in mass egg shortages.

Vaccinating in large numbers, as with chicken flocks, is costly.

“Emergency use justifies the expense of mRNA vaccines in animals over older methods because of their inherent safety when it comes biosecurity threats,” Prof. Thordarson says.

“However, right now, mRNA-based animal vaccines are still too expensive for widespread use in farming.”

Science before the storm

While early breakthroughs start as expensive and complex, over time, scale and efficiency make them more practical.

Prof. Thordarson predicts that within the next five to 10 years, mRNA vaccines could become a cost-effective staple in agriculture, particularly as researchers refine their delivery systems and production methods.

“We're still at an early point with mRNA,” he says.

“At some point we will start to break through the price barriers for more and more animal diseases – and that's another reason why it’s important to do this research now.

“This is why our work on upscaling these vaccines here at ���������¼� could be a game changer for Australian farmers in the future.”