BioStone was Awarded SBIR Phase I Grant for ASF DIVA Assay Development from USDA

DALLAS-FORT WORTH, TX — July 1, 2021 — We are happy to announce that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) has awarded BioStone Animal Health a Phase I SBIR grant. The project is entitled “An Enzyme-Linked Immuno-Sorbent Assay (ELISA) for Detecting African Swine Fever Antibodies and Differentiating Infected from Vaccinated Animals (DIVA)”.  Our aim is to develop a companion diagnostic tool to accompany a promising vaccine candidate for African Swine Fever Viruses (ASFV). The ASFV vaccine, named ASFV-G-DI177L, was developed by the USDA and provides exceptional protection in the laboratory. Currently, the vaccine has been licensed to Navetco for manufacturing and field testing in Vietnam.

We are excited to develop a new ELISA kit that will (1) have greater sensitivity than previous ASFV ELISAs and (2) provide critical information about ASFV vaccination status and immune responses.

To diagnose vaccination status, we aim to develop a second test that employs a protein fragment from I177L, which has been deleted from the ASFV-G-DI177L vaccine. This vaccine test would produce a positive result in non-vaccinated animals that have an ASFV infection. However, uninfected vaccinated animals would not have antibodies against I177L, and therefore, they would produce a negative test result. Together, the two ELISA tests comprise the DIVA test kit to diagnose the presence of ASFV antibodies and determine if they were induced by ASFV infections or vaccinations.

About BioStone Animal Health — BioStone Animal Health is a Dallas, TX-based biotechnology company that provides innovative solutions for animal health. BioStone Animal Health works together with our worldwide partners to offer a portfolio of animal disease diagnostic products as well as test kits and reagents for vaccine testing that enables performing a rapid evaluation of the efficacies, stability, consistency, and potency of common animal vaccines. By making these test kits available to the international community, BioStone strives to actively promote and participate in global animal health initiatives. For more information about BioStone Animal Health, visit www.biostoneah.com