AUTHOR=Su Hang , Yakovlev Igor A. , van Eerde André , Su Jianguo , Clarke Jihong Liu 

TITLE=Plant-Produced Vaccines: Future Applications in Aquaculture

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=Volume 12 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2021.718775

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2021.718775

ISSN=1664-462X

ABSTRACT=Aquaculture has achieved a rapid development in the past decades. It provides a large part of high-quality protein food for humans, and thus a sustainable aquaculture industry is of great importance for the worldwide food supply and economy. Along with the quick expansion of aquaculture, the high fish densities employed in fish farming increase the risks of outbreaks of a variety of aquatic diseases. Such diseases not only cause huge economic losses, but also lead to ecological hazards in terms of pathogen spread to marine ecosystems causing infection of wild fish and polluting the environment. Thus, fish health is essential for the aquaculture industry to be environmentally sustainable and a prerequisite for intensive aquaculture production globally. The wide use of antibiotics and drug residues has caused intensive pollution along with risks for food safety and increasing antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Vaccination is the most effective and environmentally friendly approach to battle infectious diseases in aquaculture with minimal ecological impact and is applicable to most species of farmed fish. However, there are only over 30 fish vaccines commercially available globally to date, showing the urgent need for further development of fish vaccines to manage fish health and ensure food safety.
Plant genetic engineering has been utilized to produce genetically modified (GM) crops with desirable characteristics and also used for vaccine production, with several advantages including cost effectiveness, safety when compared with live virus vaccines, and plants being capable of carrying out post-translational modifications that are similar to naturally occurring systems. So far, plant-derived vaccines, antibodies and therapeutic proteins have been produced for human and animal health. However, the development of plant-made vaccines for animals, especially fish, is still lagging behind the development of human vaccines. Therefore, developing fish vaccines by way of plant biotechnology is of significance for the aquaculture industry, fish health management, food safety and human health.