Project aims to vaccination via microalgae
This project -leaded by the PhD’s Vitalia Henríquez and Sergio Marshall- aims to create an alternative to injected vaccines, method that involves in their opinion higher costs and stress due to all the handlings required during its application.
Vitalia Henríquez said that “since microalgae are a natural part in the feed intake of fish there are not modifications to their diet. They are innocuous, non-toxic and non-pathogenic. Besides, they have a resistant cellular wall that enables the product to be delivered in the intestine where it is absorbed”.
According to the PUCV, this three-year project received close to USD 1.1 million from the Chilean Economic Development Agency (Corfo) to develop prophylactic/therapeutic microalgae pellets oriented to be oral vaccines against the Salmonid Rickettsial Septicaemia (SRS), and the Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) and Infectious Pancreatic Necrosis (IPN) viruses.
