Economically Feasible Mass Production of Egg Yolk Powder Tablets (Chicken IgY) for Global COVID-19 Transmission Prevention

TL;DR

This paper shows how to mass-produce chicken egg yolk antibodies (IgY) into tablets to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 in a cost-effective way.

Contribution

The study demonstrates the first scalable production of anti-COVID-19 IgY tablets for global use.

Findings

Over 70,000 chickens were immunized to produce anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgY in egg yolks.

The IgY powder was made into stable, effective tablets with long-term activity.

The tablets neutralized all major COVID-19 strains and could be used globally.

Abstract

Despite the overall positive outcomes in hospitalization and mortality rates from the COVID-19 vaccines, COVID-19 infections remained prevalent around the world highlighting the need for alternative control strategies. Passive immunization with chicken IgY has long served as a feasible countermeasure, which gained further popularity in the research community during the recent pandemic. Here we demonstrate for the first time the scalability of anti-COVID-19 IgY production for effective distribution and potential use in large populations. Over 70,000 chickens were immunized against the SARS-CoV-2 S1 antigen to produce eggs containing anti-S1 IgY. The resulting egg yolk powder was formulated into commercially acceptable tablets for human consumption. QC and stability testing showed that the purified IgY and tablets maintained activity and stability for over a year. The resulting large batch of IgY tablets demonstrated equal immunoreactivity and virus neutralization potential against all leading COVID-19 strains. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of manufacturing egg yolk powder into edible tablets, and that can now be employed to block viral infectivity and transmission against all major COVID-19 strains affordably and effectively manner in both developed and developing countries.

Figures