The first mRNA vaccine against foot-and-mouth disease successfully tested in cattle by FLI as part of an international collaboration

An mRNA vaccine against foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), developed by the Australian state of New South Wales and the American company Tiba Biotech, has been successfully tested in cattle at the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI). Unlike traditional FMD vaccines, which require large quantities of the virus to be cultivated under strict safety conditions, mRNA vaccines can be produced without any special biosafety requirements. The complex antigen purification process, which is necessary for traditional vaccines to distinguish between vaccinated and infected animals, is also unnecessary. At the FLI headquarters on the island of Riems, it has now been demonstrated that two vaccinations at four-week intervals provide cattle with complete protection against clinical disease. Additionally, virus shedding in cattle infected after vaccination was reduced to such an extent that they are unlikely to infect other animals. Further studies are needed to determine whether good protection can be achieved with a single dose of the vaccine, and how quickly protection develops after vaccination. This is the first mRNA vaccine against FMD to be successfully tested in large animals.