Researchers in Belgium say a common farm animal may hold the key to finding a vaccine for the coronavirus.

Researchers at the VIB Center for Medical Biotechnology in Gent, Belgium, think that antibodies produced by llamas could prove effective in fighting off COVID-19.

According to

Business Insider,

scientists at the lab have been

studying llama antibodies

in connection with MERS and SARS — viruses that are both similar in makeup to the coronavirus.

Since Jan. 20, the group has been applying their research to fighting COVID-19. The lab quickly expanded its staff from 2 employees to 20.

"We've worked really, really long hours, especially in February and March when we were racing to get the antibody," Nico Callewaert, the director of the VIB Center, told

CNN.

Employees are currently conducting animal testing of a vaccine, and are putting the antibodies in hamsters and mice. The group hopes the tests will prove successful so they can then move on to testing human subjects.

"You have to do multiple other studies like toxicity, repeat some animal experiments, and then hopefully by the end of the year, everything should be in place to do the first clinical test," Dr. Bert Schepens, a researcher at the lab, told

CNN.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. —

"As soon as I was healthy enough, I went and got the vaccine. It was really important to me," explained Keren Sharlow.

Sharlow has a 3-year-old daughter and recently gave birth to a son. While she feeds him her milk full of antibodies, she said she is producing so much milk she wanted to share with other families.

She turned to Facebook to donate her extra supply.

"I did have some parents mention they were happy I had the vaccine and they were specifically looking for it," said Sharlow.

There are a lot of ads online looking for milk specifically with antibodies, something local OB-GYN Dr. John Caravello, from St. Mary's Medical Center, isn't surprised by.

"A baby who is breastfed exclusively for six months to a mother who received the vaccine or natural immunity, that baby is constantly getting antibody protection," said Caravello.

Caravello said if you are seeking milk online, it comes with a risk.

"I would be cautious about someone selling their milk, unless they are able to demonstrate they have gone through an appropriate pasteurization process that has been proven and they have been screened and that their milk is free of communicable disease," explained Caravello.

The doctor said when you pasteurize the milk, you are also removing a lot of the good nutrients, including some of the antibodies.

"People are kind of desperate. They want to do something to protect their baby," said Caravello.

Sharlow said she does not pasteurize, but the families she donates to know that.

The doctor said if you want to buy milk online, you should ask if the milk is pasteurized, get specific information about the donor's diet, ask how the milk is stored and make sure the pump is properly cleaned.

A recent study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that antibodies might protect people who've already had COVID-19 from being reinfected for at least six months.

Researchers looked at 12,541 healthcare workers at Oxford University Hospitals in the United Kingdom and were followed for up to 31 weeks.

In the study, researchers investigated the incidences of COVID-19 infection by conducting polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests on the healthcare workers who had tested positive and negative, including both symptomatic and asymptomatic cases.

The study results showed that 11,364 did not have antibody levels, and 1,265 had positive results, which also included 88 healthcare workers in whom seroconversion occurred during follow-up. A total of 223 anti-spike–negative health care workers had a positive PCR test (1.09 per 10,000 days at risk), up to 100 during screening were found to be asymptomatic, and 123 were to have symptoms, the study found.

Researchers said that individuals who had anti-spike antibodies had no symptomatic infections.

EVANSTON, IL — Is it possible you were infected with a mild form of COVID-19 and didn’t know it? How robust is your body’s immune response to the vaccine, and how will we know whether we’ve reached herd immunity? A new home antibody test could unlock the answers to those questions using a drop of blood.

With a single finger prick, scientists are hoping to measure coronavirus immunity levels across the population.

“There are a lot of people right now, because of limited vaccine supply, who don't know the level of immunity that they have,” explained biological anthropologist Thom McDade.

McDade and a team of scientists at Northwestern University developed the home antibody test that doesn’t require a hospital or clinic visit.

“One of the innovations of this approach is that allows people to collect samples from themselves in the comfort and privacy and safety of their home,” he said.

This test doesn’t tell you if you have COVID-19 when you take it. Instead, it focuses on neutralizing antibodies, which can actually measure how robust of an immune response you actually have following an infection.

“If you've been exposed previously, but might have had a mild or asymptomatic case, how much immunity do you carry forward and how much protection you have against subsequent re-infection from another exposure?”

The test itself is simple. A few drops of blood are added to a commonly used filter paper then sealed in a plastic bag and mailed off to the lab. There, the sample is mixed with a buffer agent that replicates infection and measures neutralization of the virus with a score of 1 to 100.

“If you have 100 percent neutralization that means high levels of neutralizing antibodies that are blocking that interaction between the virus and your receptors,” said McDade.

The investigators are already using the test in a 10,000-person study. That could help them understand community spread and how much protective immunity has developed.

“That could be people who have never exposed people who are exposed and asymptomatic and we can also use it to test the effectiveness of vaccines,” said McDade. “There might be people who have immunocompromised condition or who are older who might not generate as robust an immune response following vaccination and that would be useful information.”

With nothing proprietary about the process, following peer review, McDade said it could be made widely available with existing infrastructure and supplies and could help measure herd immunity.

It’s still not clear whether this test can measure the effectiveness of neutralizing antibodies against emerging variants, but researchers say it could be modified for specific variants as needed.