Ala Tabor

Ala's research is translationally driven by developing vaccines, diagnostic tests and genotyping assays to better manage the health of livestock and companion pets. Globally there are approximately 1.46b cattle, of which 80% in tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world are at risk from ticks (Rhipicephalus microplus species complex) and the diseases they carry (anaplasmosis and babesiosis) with estimated annual losses of $US22b-$US30b (Lew-Tabor & Rodriguez Valle 2016). Australia is one the largest exporters of cattle in the world (~$1.3m p.a.) with 60% of these exports originating from northern Australia. In Australia, cattle tick and tick borne diseases cost ~$175m per year in losses. Reproductive wastage also has a high economic impact on cattle production in northern Australia with the cost of losses due to infectious diseases difficult to determine due to the lack of specific diagnostic tests. The Australian paralysis tick (Ixodes holocyclus) affects ~100,000 livestock and 10,000 companion animals per year in Australia, as well as humans.

Ala is currently collaborating with industry towards the commercialisation of 2 very different anti-tick vaccines - the cattle tick and the Australian paralysis tick - 3 patents under review. Cattle tick research (genomics - reverse vaccinology approach) commenced in 2005 and proof of concept trials have shown excellent results. This ~$5m investment since 2005 has been a large collaboration with Qld Department of Agriculture & Fisheries, Murdoch University's Centre for Comparative Genomics and the US Department of Agriculture. Ala has developed molecular assays for the diagnosis of bovine venereal disease (McMillen and Lew, 2006) commercialised into a kit by Applied Biosystems™ (Life Technologies; VetMAX™T.foetus Reagents #4415221) in 2011. Her research team developed a novel bovine venereal disease sampling tool Tricamper™ which is sold by the Qld Department of Agriculture & Fisheries since 2006 (~3,500 sold p.a.). Several assays she and her research teams have developed are in use by veterinary diagnostic laboratories including: bovine tick fever pathogens (anaplasmosis and babesiosis) – monitoring of live vaccine stocks and the investigation of outbreaks including exported cattle in New Caledonia (Lew et al 1998; Lew et al 2002; Bing et al 2016); Bovine venereal/reproductive diseases tests; Screw worm fly quarantine preparedness (this fly species would bring in excess of $100m in losses to Australian livestock if introduced) (Jarrett et al. 2010).

The recognition of her research into cattle tick vaccines led to the invitation to join the International Tick Vaccine Consortium (CATVAC) to deliver tick vaccines into Africa (Morocco, July 2015; concept paper (Schetters et al. 2016)​ and a member of an International Consortium awarded the International ‘Tick and tick-borne Pathogen Award for Significant Contribution for the Field: Genome sequencing of the cattle tick, Rhipicephalus microplus’ at the 8th International Tick and Tick-Borne Pathogen Conference in 2014. She has been invited to present at several international meetings associated with ticks and vaccines including Kenya, Brazil and the UK. Ala was the Chair of the 9th International Tick and Tick-borne Pathogen Conference (TTP9) which was held with the Inaugural Asia-Pacific Rickettsia Conference in 2017 - for the first time in Australia. The outputs of the conference has led to 2 Special Issues with 2 different journals with Prof Tabor as a Guest Editor - MDPI Veterinary Sciences (http://www.mdpi.com/journal/vetsci/special_issues/TTP9) and Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases (https://www.journals.elsevier.com/ticks-and-tick-borne-diseases).