Booster shot of U of S Vaccine Centre

Source: Saskatchewan Agriculture and Food

A proposed international vaccine centre at the University of Saskatchewan has received a boost from the federal government.

Health Minister Tony Clement was in Saskatoon this month to announce an additional $25 million for the International Vaccine Centre (InterVac). InterVac will be the first facility of its kind in the world to focus on vaccine development for both animal and human pathogens.

When completed, it will be one of the largest vaccine research labs in North America, with leading edge facilities not found anywhere else on the continent.

Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones, says better understanding of animal disease, especially in large animals, will help researchers learn more about human diseases and how to fight them. These diseases, like Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) and West Nile Virus, threaten both human health and the livestock industry.

“Some 80 per cent of emerging human diseases originated in animals,” said Butler-Jones. “Everything from plague itself to influenza to tuberculosis to measles.”

The centre would have the capacity to study up to 180 cows or 5,000 chickens.

The University of Saskatchewan’s Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO) is a key group behind the push to make the $110 million dollar project a reality. VIDO Director Lorne Babiuk says that infectious diseases are not a local issue. “Infectious diseases do not have passports,” he said.

VIDO is hoping to secure the final piece of the InterVac project funding in the near future. The federal government previously committed $24 million, the Government of Saskatchewan provided $25 million and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) provided $32 million. The University of Saskatchewan contributed $3 million and the City of Saskatoon provided $750,000.

InterVac construction is expected to begin this spring and be completed by 2010. The laboratory will be owned and operated by the University of Saskatchewan.

VIDO was created in 1975 with a mandate to develop vaccines for the protection of livestock against serious and economically devastating diseases, and to ensure that technology reached the producer. It has gone from a staff of five, temporarily housed in trailers, to a new name, a brand new state-of-the-art building, and more than 140 employees and researchers occupying 100,000 square feet.

For more information, contact:

Tess Laidlaw, Communications Officer
Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization
Phone: (306) 966-1506
Fax: (306) 966-7478