PRRSV Vaccine
PRRSV - Disease Description
PRRSV is one of the most damaging viral pathogens of pigs, causing reproductive failure in sows and gilts — abortions, stillbirths, mummified foetuses, weak-born piglets and reduced weaning numbers — and respiratory disease in piglets, nursery and grower-finisher pigs, often worsened by secondary infections and PRDC.
PRRSV is present in most major pig-producing regions, including the USA, China, Japan, South Korea and most of the EU; PRRSV-2 predominates in North America and much of Asia, PRRSV-1 is dominant in Europe, and both species/lineages show high genetic variability, making broad heterologous protection the central vaccine challenge.
Economic losses are among the highest of any endemic swine disease: recent US estimates are about US$1.1–1.2 billion/year, the EU estimate is about €1.5 billion/year or €5–10 per pig, Japan has been estimated at about JPY 28 billion/year / historically around US$280–300 million, Chinese outbreak analyses report about ¥1,424 per sow in whole-herd impact, and Korean outbreak data show losses around US$204 per sow over the post-outbreak period; globally, because China, the EU and USA together represent most pork production, PRRSV exposure plausibly runs into several billion US dollars per year, although no single official worldwide annual figure exists.
PRRSV Vaccine in Development
Disease Challenge
Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus remains one of the most economically important swine pathogens worldwide. PRRSV is highly variable, with major differences between PRRSV-1 and PRRSV-2 and substantial diversity among regional and emerging variants.
This variability creates a major challenge for vaccine development and for achieving broad, durable protection across production systems and geographic regions.
GeminiVax Vaccine Concept
GeminiVax is developing a next-generation PRRSV vaccine candidate designed to address both PRRSV-1 and PRRSV-2 through conserved immune targets. The programme focuses on rationally selected antigenic cassettes intended to stimulate immune responses against viral regions with relevance across European, North American and Asian lineages.
Target Immune Response
The vaccine concept places particular emphasis on cellular immunity, including cytotoxic T-cell responses against conserved PRRSV epitopes. Humoral components may also be incorporated where they support broader or more balanced immunity.
Expected Differentiation
The programme is designed to address a key limitation of conventional PRRSV vaccine approaches: the difficulty of achieving broad coverage against a highly diverse and evolving virus.
Development Status
This vaccine candidate is under development and is not yet a registered veterinary product.