Stirling awarded grant for Vietnam vaccine project

Scientists at the University of Stirling have been awarded more than £770,000 to support the roll out of a new vaccine that could deliver major benefits to the aquaculture industry in Vietnam.

The new project – led by the University’s world-leading Institute of Aquaculture – will build on a previous study that developed an innovative vaccine to tackle antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Vietnamese catfish and provided insight into the barriers to vaccine use amongst farmers.

The multidisciplinary team – which includes psychologists and behavioural economists from the University of Stirling – will use the latest funding to support the commercial development of the new vaccine and encourage uptake amongst aquaculture farmers in Vietnam. Ultimately, the project is seeking to reduce damaging antibiotic use which leads to rapid antimicrobial resistance within freshwater farming systems.

Professor Margaret Crumlish, of the Institute of Aquaculture, is leading the new project, which is funded by £774,239 from Canada’s International Development Research Centre and the UK Department of Health and Social Care, under the Innovative Veterinary Solutions for Antimicrobial Resistance (InnoVet-AMR) initiative. This is in collaboration with Dr Le Hong Phuoc and his team from the Research Institute of Aquaculture Number 2 (RIA 2), located in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam.

Professor Crumlish said: “Vaccine hesitancy in the Vietnamese Pangasius catfish sector remains high and combined with poor antibiotic stewardship, the sector has reached an AMR crisis. The novelty of this project, is not only the new immersion-based vaccine, but the integration of behavioural sciences to directly address vaccine hesitancy and promote vaccination strategies to reduce the threat of AMR.”

Professor Margaret Crumlish. (Photo: University of Stirling)

Vietnam is one of the largest producers of aquaculture in the world and, over the past 25 years, is the global leader of the farmed freshwater catfish (Pangasius) sector – with the produce sold in more than 160 countries.

However, catfish suffer from bacterial infections, which result in the widespread use of antibiotics – and previous research has suggested that 80 percent of farmers lacked a therapeutic approach and, instead, used a cocktail of antibiotics. As a result, the Vietnamese catfish sector is currently in an AMR crisis, which is affecting animal, human and environmental health within freshwater systems.