Efficiency of natural oils as alternative adjuvants to mineral oils in inactivated avian influenza vaccine formulation

ABSTRACT

1. The effectiveness of inactivated vaccines depends on selecting the suitable adjuvant for vaccine formulation. The potency of vaccines with low antigen content can be improved with the appropriate adjuvant. This could allow production of more doses and lower the production cost.

2. This study evaluated the efficiency of vaccines prepared using oil extracted from natural sources including argan oil, almond oil, sesame seed oil, pumpkin oil, cactus oil and black seed oil as alternative adjuvants for improving the protection capacity of inactivated influenza virus vaccine as compared to commonly used mineral oils.

3. Each vaccine formulation was evaluated for stability, safety and immunogenicity in chickens, as well as for reducing the viral shedding after challenge infection.

4. The cactus, sesame and pumpkin seed oil-based vaccines were found to be potent and successfully induced the production of humoral immunity in vaccinated chickens.

KEYWORDS:

• Mineral oils
• avian influenza
• vaccine
• adjuvants
• poultry

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Rebecca Badra for editing the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by the National Research Centre (NRC) in Egypt, project number [12010125].