Plants are exploited as bioreactors for the cost-effective production of
pharmaceuticals, predominantly for the expression and accumulation of antigenic
proteins, to be used as vaccines for livestock and poultry. Due to the high body mass of
large animals and large population of poultry and other birds, a larger quantity of
vaccines is needed continuously. It increases the production costs of vaccines for these
animals. Under high biomass production ability, plants represent promising biofactory
with added advantages of pathogen-free production of desired proteins in bulk
quantities. Hence, plant-based transient, as well as stable expression systems, have
been exceedingly applied to express immunogenic proteins. We have been using
various plants like soybean and Trifolium to produce edible vaccines for poultry and
livestock, respectively. Here we have reviewed various types of vaccines with a special
focus on their plant-based expression with examples of Infectious Bursal Disease
(IBD), New Castle Disease (ND), and Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD).
Keywords: Biopharming, Molecular pharming, IBD, ND, FMD, Vaccine, Edible
vaccine, DNA vaccine, Subunit vaccine.
