Ceva x Cirad
Ceva Santé Animale & Cirad have been collaborating jointly for over 10 years to develop strong vaccination strategies against avian and swine influenza.
A partnership to develop innovative health solutions to fight against swine & poultry flu
Our collaboration started around the development and implementation of a tool called EVACS that aimed at modeling the immunity generated by flu H5 vaccines at national or more local level. During these 10 years, the tool was applied in several countries such as Indonesia, Egypt, Bangladesh, Vietnam, France and Spain. Ceva & Cirad have co-supervised two PhD theses to further develop the tool, apply it in new countries and to the swine production. Ceva & Cirad are now partners under the BioFluRNA project led by Ceva and co-funded between Ceva and the French government.
This partnership is bringing innovation, especially this modeling approach that is aimed for veterinary authorities to compare potential vaccination strategies and take difficult decisions on sectors of production to be vaccinated and required vaccine parameters. Ceva and Cirad are developing many ideas to continue and expand this partnership, in particular by applying it to other countries and for other vaccines dedicated to fight against avian and swine influenza.
A partnership which takes us beyond animal health
Poultry and swine influenza are definitely pathogens with a zoonotic potential and even with a pandemic potential. We know that the first pillar for preventing zoonotic human influenza cases and pandemic risks is the prevention and control of influenza in poultry and swine production. Therefore this partnership bring us beyond animal health.
Cirad usually has national-wide approaches to disease surveillance and control while Ceva usually has individual interactions with customers. We are therefore very complementary in the information and angles of consideration. Cirad and academia, in general, bring science and innovation whereas private entities such as Ceva bring their knowledge and know-how to turn this science into concrete products and solutions.
Outcomes and achievements from this partnership
The work done jointly has clearly evidenced the superiority of H5 poultry vaccination strategies mostly based on vaccines applied at the hatchery – as opposed to vaccines applied at the farm because we can reach mass coverage and a proper immunity of at least 70% of poultry at risk. This same conclusion has been drawn from every national study where EVACS has been applied.
Beyond our partnership, we participate together to an EU-funded swine flu network, called ESFLU. Ceva encouraged CIRAD scientists to also join this network and as of today, 3 scientists from CIRAD are also actively involved in this network.