Vaccines as a Strategy to Control Trichinellosis

Trichinellosis caused by Trichinella spiralis is a worldwide food-borne parasitic zoonosis. Several approaches have been performed to control T. spiralis infection, including veterinary vaccines, which contribute to improving animal health and increasing public health by preventing the transmission of trichinellosis from animals to humans. In the past several decades, many vaccine studies have been performed in effort to control T. spiralis infection by reducing the muscle larvae and adult worms burden. Various candidate antigens, selected from excretory-secretory (ES) products and different functional proteins involved in the process of establishing infection have been investigated in rodent or swine models to explore their protective effect against T. spiralis infection. Moreover, different types of vaccines have been developed to improve the protective effect against T. spiralis infection in rodent or swine models, such as live attenuated vaccines, natural antigen vaccines, recombinant protein vaccines, DNA vaccines, and synthesized epitope vaccines. However, few studies of T. spiralis vaccines have been performed in pigs, and future research should focus on exploring the protective effect of different types of vaccines in swine models. Here, we present an overview of the strategies for the development of effective T. spiralis vaccines and summarize the factors of influencing the effectiveness of vaccines. We also discuss several propositions in improving the effectiveness of vaccines and may provide a route map for future T. spiralis vaccines development.