As global demand for sustainable protein intensifies, Dalan Animal Health is announcing how their first-of-its-kind shrimp vaccine candidate could change how the world produces animal protein. The company's shrimp vaccine — leveraging a novel transgenerational immunity mechanism — has demonstrated the ability to protect offspring from lethal diseases by vaccinating parent animals, offering a scalable biological solution to one of livestock production's most intractable challenges: catastrophic disease outbreaks.

The implications may be able to extend far beyond shrimp. Dalan's platform technology, already proven in honeybees with the world's first bee vaccine, represents a new category of vaccines that could address disease challenges across the global animal protein supply chain to other aquaculture species and poultry.

The sustainable protein challenge

Global protein demand is projected to increase 50% by 2050, driven by population growth and rising incomes in developing nations. Aquaculture — already the world's fastest-growing food production sector — must expand dramatically to meet this demand sustainably. Yet disease outbreaks routinely devastate production, in some cases causing up to 100% mortality in shrimp farms and forcing the industry to rely heavily on antibiotics and chemicals.

This creates an impossible trade-off: the world needs more animal protein, but current production methods strain environmental limits and contribute to antimicrobial resistance — a threat the World Health Organization calls one of the top 10 global public health risks.

"The sustainable protein challenge isn't just about producing more food—it's about producing it without destroying the biological systems we depend on," said Annette Kleiser, CEO of Dalan Animal Health. "When a shrimp farm loses 100% of its stock to viral outbreak, or a poultry operation must depopulate due to disease, it's not just an economic loss—it's wasted resources, environmental damage, and a step backward in feeding the world sustainably."

A new biological approach

Dalan's recent study validates a fundamentally different approach: activating innate immunity in parent animals to provide broad-spectrum, lasting protection to all offspring. The results demonstrate that oral vaccination of whiteleg shrimp (Penaeus vannamei) broodstock creates progeny significantly resistant to White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV), one of aquaculture's most devastating pathogens.

Gabriel Luna, veteran aquaculture executive and Dalan shrimp advisory board member, contextualized the breakthrough: "The aquaculture industry now produces over 94 million metric tons of animal protein annually, surpassing global beef production by more than 50%. But disease is the primary constraint that prevents us from scaling this efficiency sustainably.

"Dalan's approach is transformative because it works with biology, not against it. By creating inherently resilient populations instead of just treating individual outbreaks, we are securing the most vital engine of the global food system."

Beyond shrimp: platform implications

While the current focus is shrimp — a $45 billion global industry growing 4-5% annually — Dalan's transgenerational immunity platform has demonstrated proof-of-concept across species boundaries.

The company's honeybee vaccine, which received USDA conditional licensure in 2023, proves the mechanism works in invertebrates critical to food security. But the biological principle—innate immunity training that passes from parent to offspring—applies to vertebrates as well.

Sunil Kadri, aquaculture scientist and Dalan shrimp advisory board member, said, "From an evolutionary biology perspective, innate immunity is universal to plants and animals. Dalan has demonstrated they can activate this system prenatally in both bees and shrimp.

"The next logical applications are salmon, where sea lice and infectious diseases cost billions annually, and poultry and swine, where emerging diseases like avian influenza and PRRS create huge economic and food security issues. Developing solutions for these species provides the opportunity to address serious global challenges by following the biology where it naturally leads."

Cindy Tsang, global animal health innovation leader and Dalan shrimp advisory board member, said, "Every major protein producer — whether aquaculture, poultry or livestock — faces the same fundamental tension: how to increase production while reducing environmental impact and antibiotic use. Dalan's platform offers a path forward.

"Biological solutions that enhance natural immunity allow us to scale sustainably in ways that chemical interventions never could. This new data prove this isn't theoretical—it's happening now in shrimp, and the applications across animal protein production are enormous."

"The level of interest that we're seeing from all areas of the animal health and aquaculture industry validates what we've known: disease management is the critical bottleneck in sustainable protein production, and no one else has cracked the code on transgenerational immunity," Kleiser said. "Companies across the value chain recognize that whoever controls this technology controls a significant competitive advantage in the race to feed 10 billion people sustainably."

Source: Dalan Animal Health