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A vaccine against the disease associated with a virus carried by migrating wildebeest
7/3/13

A question of (a lot of) money

It remains to be seen if this immunization could one day be used to protect the herds of the Maasai herdsmen. “To do that it would be necessary to find a pharmaceutical company prepared to finance the registration and production of the vaccine. The problem is, however, that those who would be likely to buy this vaccine live in poorer regions. It has already proved difficult to perfect a treatment against malaria for more or less the same reasons. The cost-benefit ratio will undoubtedly not be sufficient to justify marketing the vaccine. Government organizations may decide to fund the operation. On the other hand, breeders involved in ‘game faming’ in Southern Africa might be interested in marketing such a vaccine, but this is still at the study stage…”

The study carried out in Liege has certainly not been in vain however. The AlHV-1 virus is part of the gamma-herpesvirus subfamily, a group of viruses that harbor some viruses that can attack humans such as the Kaposi’s sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (a cancer that causes cutaneous tumors and which develops mainly in HIV virus carriers) or the Epstein-Barr virus (responsible for infectious mononucleosis). They all possess the same characteristic: the induction of lymphomas. “They share a lot of genes and are very close in terms of their genome. Consequently, we could try to establish parallels between what we observe in animals and humans.”

Common points could also be found with the ovine herpesvirus 2 (OvHV 2), another first cousin of the disease present in sheep and which causes malignant catarrhal fever in cattle and other ruminants, particularly in bison in the United States. “They are so close that we could expect that the vaccine would also work in this case”, continues Benjamin Dewals, who has already established contact with Dr Hong Li, of Washington State University.  

In addition, care must be taken to ensure that an eventual vaccine does not cause more problems than it solves, for example by allowing an excessive increase in Maasai cattle numbers, which would encroach upon the ecosystem of the wildebeest. “But I don’t think this would be the case”, explains the researcher, “I believe that this would enable them to better manage their cattle. This would be important not only for the meat and milk trade, but also on a social level, because having livestock is vital for these pastoral populations”.

GnousFinally, we must not forget that the current situation gives the wildebeest a double advantage. Not only does AlHV-1 spread death and “eliminate” the competitors that depend on the same rare food supply, grass; but it also supplies big carnivores with easy prey so that they lose interest in the migrating herds. As the infected animals do not have enough time to lose weight, they make an ample meal for lions, hyenas and leopards that do not even have to tire themselves out by catching them. Alcephaline herpesvirus 1 is a very strange phenomenon indeed…

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