Potency of a thermostabilised chimpanzee adenovirus Rift Valley Fever vaccine in cattle

Development of safe and efficacious vaccines whose potency is unaffected by long-term storage at ambient temperature would obviate major vaccine deployment hurdles and limit wastage associated with breaks in the vaccine cold chain. Here, we evaluated the immunogenicity of a novel chimpanzee adenovirus vectored Rift Valley Fever vaccine (ChAdOx1-GnGc) in cattle, following its thermostabilisation by slow desiccation on glass fiber membranes in the non-reducing sugars trehalose and sucrose. Thermostabilised ChAdOx1-GnGc vaccine stored for 6 months at 25, 37 or 45 °C elicited comparable Rift Valley Fever virus neutralising antibody titres to those elicited by the ‘cold chain’ vaccine (stored at −80 °C throughout) at the same dose, and these were within the range associated with protection against Rift Valley Fever in cattle. The results support the use of sugar-membrane thermostabilised vaccines in target livestock species.