The Construct of a Heterologous Vaccine Candidate Against B. Avium
Channel: JMU ISAT
Date: 2017-07-01

Full Title: The Construct of a Heterologous Vaccine Candidate Against B. Avium and C. Jejuni Food Poisoning Utilizing the B. Avium Autotransporter, Baa1 by Rachel Korba
Advised by Dr. Louise Temple
Abstract: Bordetellosis is a disease in turkeys commonly caused by the Gram negative bacterium Bordetella avium. B. avium also colonizes chickens, but does not cause disease. In spite of treatment and vaccine regimens, bordetellosis continues to cause financial losses in the poultry industry. Vaccines against bordetellosis could also be formulated to deliver a heterologous antigen to help protect against other poultry diseases or contaminants, such as Campylobacter jejuni, which causes human food poisoning from contaminated meat. There are more cases of food poisoning each year due to Campylobacter than E. coli and Salmonella combined. In this study, I am investigating whether an autotransporter gene, baa1, which is expressed in B. avium may function to deliver such a foreign antigen (i.e. CjaA or FlaA from C. jejuni), and the removal of the naturally occurring passenger region renders the strain non-virulent in turkeys under laboratory conditions. This would lead to a dual live vaccine combatting both B. avium and C. jejuni and furthermore, protecting human health. A plasmid was synthesized containing a codon-optimized cjaA gene portion between the baa1 promoter and transporter regions. The construct was introduced in the B. avium chromosome through homologous recombination. Transconjugants were confirmed and will be tested for expression of the baa1/cjaA hybrid gene. Once expression of the C. jejuni region is confirmed, attachment studies will be done to further a vaccine development.