Our investigation was conducted in order to verify a recent severe epidemic at several swine farms in northern China that indicated a newly emerging disease. Evidence confirmed that the epidemic was caused by a virulent Pseudorabies virus infection in swine herds.
Animals ; China/epidemiology ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay/veterinary ; Epidemics/*veterinary ; Herpesvirus 1, Suid/classification/*isolation & purification/*pathogenicity ; Pseudorabies/*epidemiology/mortality/pathology/virology ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction/veterinary ; Sequence Analysis, DNA/veterinary ; Swine ; Swine Diseases/*epidemiology/mortality/pathology/virology ; Vaccination/adverse effects/veterinary ; Virulence

This study measured the clinical prevalence of peste des petits ruminants (PPR) among sheep and goats in India between 2003 and 2009 by analyzing clinical samples from suspected cases of PPR that were submitted to the Rinderpest and Allied Disease Laboratory, Division of Virology, IVRI, Mukteswar for PPR diagnosis. PPR outbreaks were confirmed by detecting PPR virus (PPRV)-specific antigen in the clinical samples. Clinical samples (blood, nasal swabs, spleen, lymph node, kidney, liver, intestine, and pooled tissue materials) were taken from a total of 592 sheep and 912 goats in different states of India and screened for the presence of PPRV antigen using a monoclonal antibody-based sandwich ELISA kit. A total of 20, 38, and 11 laboratory-confirmed PPR outbreaks occurred among sheep, goat, and combined sheep and goat populations, respectively. Our findings provide evidence of widespread PPR endemicity in India. The underlying reasons could be variations in husbandry practices in different geographical regions, agro-climatic conditions, and livestock migration. Furthermore, decrease in the number of PPR outbreaks over time might be due to the effectiveness of current live PPR vaccines and timely vaccination of target species. Vaccination against PPR has been practiced in India since 2002 to control this disease.
Animals ; Antibodies, Monoclonal/immunology ; Antigens, Viral/*blood ; Disease Outbreaks/*veterinary ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay/veterinary ; Goat Diseases/*epidemiology/immunology/prevention & control ; Goats ; India/epidemiology ; Nucleocapsid Proteins/immunology ; Peste-des-Petits-Ruminants/epidemiology/immunology/prevention & control/*veterinary ; Peste-des-petits-ruminants virus/*immunology/isolation & purification ; Prevalence ; Risk Factors ; Seasons ; Sheep ; Sheep Diseases/*epidemiology/immunology/prevention & control ; Vaccination/veterinary ; Viral Vaccines/*immunology/therapeutic use

It was reported that the sera of convalescent animals contain antibodies to foot and mouth disease (FMD) virus (FMDV) 2C, highly conserved nonstructural protein (NSP), whereas the sera of vaccinated animals do not. But ELISA methods using this protein were not reported and developed until recently. In this study, NSP 2C peptides were synthesized within the amino acid sequence of the conserved 2C nonstructural region of FMDV according to the sequences from Genbank database and used for identifying antigenic determinants. One of the synthesized thirteen peptides gave strong positive reactivity with most of the sera from 13 FMD infected farms, but not with sera from vaccinated and non-infected animals. Moreover, with the sera collected through serial bleedings from four cattle and five goats infected with FMDV O/SKR/2000 experimentally, positive results were obtained in two species after 10 days post infection (DPI). Therefore, we tried to develop and evaluate this ELISA based on 2C peptides. In comparison with the commercial NSP ELISA, the 2C peptide based ELISA method showed good specificity and sensitivity. These results demonstrate that the synthetic 2C peptide ELISA can be a complementary marker to differentiate FMDV-infected from vaccinated on a herd basis.
Animals ; Cattle ; Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay/veterinary ; Foot-and-Mouth Disease/*diagnosis ; Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus/*isolation&purification ; Goats ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Vaccination ; Viral Nonstructural Proteins/*chemical synthesis ; Viral Vaccines

Classical swine fever (CSF), an acute and highly contagious disease of swine, is caused by classical swine fever virus. CSF is one of the most devastating diseases to the pig industry worldwide and results in serious economic losses. Currently prophylactic vaccination is still an important strategy for the control of CSF. Live attenuated vaccines (such as C-strain) are safe and effective. However, there are significant changes in the clinical features of CSF, displaying concurrent typical and atypical CSF, and simultaneous inapparent and persistent infections. Immunization failure has been reported frequently and it is difficult to distinguish between wild-type infected and vaccinated animals (DIVA). So there is an urgent need to develop more effective and safer DIVA or marker vaccines for the control of CSF. In this review, some of the most recent advances in new-type vaccines against CSF, including DNA vaccines, live virus-vectored vaccines, protein or peptide-based vaccines, gene-deleted vaccines and chimeric pestivirus-based vaccines, are reviewed and discussed.
Animals ; Classical Swine Fever ; prevention & control ; Classical swine fever virus ; Swine ; Vaccination ; veterinary ; Vaccines, Attenuated ; immunology ; Vaccines, DNA ; immunology ; Vaccines, Subunit ; immunology ; Viral Vaccines ; immunology

To determine the immune responses in pigs to hog cholera virus after treatment with an ionized alkali mineral complex (IAMC), 40 healthy pigs (28-32 days old) from a commercial swine farm were purchased and housed into 4 groups (n=10 each). All pigs were vaccinated intramuscularly (1 ml) with an attenuated live hog cholera virus (HCV, LOM strain) at 28-32 days old and challenged with a virulent hog cholera virus at 8 weeks after vaccination. Each group was treated with PowerFeelTM sprayed diet as 0.05% (w/w) in a final concentration (T-1, n=10), a diet mixed with SuperFeedTM as 3% (w/w) in a final concentration (T-2, n=10), or a diluted PowerFeelTM solution (1:500, v/v) as drinking water (T-3, n=10), respectively. A group (n=10) served as a non-treated control. Proportions of expressing CD2+ and CD8+ cells increased significantly (p<, 0.05) at 8-week post-application. Mean antibody titers of each group against HCV gradually increased to higher levels after vaccination and with challenge of the virulent virus. In conclusion, the IAMC-treated diets can be helpful for the improvement of growth in pigs with proper vaccination program, while the IAMC-treated diets have no effects on the clinical protection against hog cholera.
Alkalies/immunology/*pharmacology ; Animals ; Antibodies, Viral/blood ; Classical Swine Fever/*immunology/prevention & control ; Classical swine fever virus/*immunology ; Flow Cytometry/veterinary ; Fluorescent Antibody Technique, Indirect/veterinary ; HLA Antigens/immunology ; Minerals/immunology/*pharmacology ; Swine ; Vaccination/*veterinary ; Vaccines, Attenuated/immunology ; Viral Vaccines/*immunology

To develop a specific, rapid, and convenient immunochromatography assay (ICA) to detect the rabies antibody in clinical sample from immuned dogs by rabies vaccine. Colloidal gold particles labeled with purified rabies virus (CVS11) were used as the detector reagent. The staphylococcal protein A (SPA) and pured rabbit anti-rabies virus IgG were blotted on the test and control regions of nitrocellulose membrane. Then the strip was assembled with sample pad, absorbing pad, and dorsal shield. The assay samples (261 dog's serum) were collected from Wildlife Rabies Disease Diagnostic Laboratories of Ministry of Agriculture in China, Institute of Military Veterinary, Academy of Military Medical Sciences and other six provinces, including rabies virus positive and negative serum. The performance of the strip was compared to fluorescent antibody virus neutralization test. The neutralizing antibody titer could be detected above 0.5 IU. The strip did not change of performance when stored at room temperature for 12 months. It may offer reference of neutralizing antibody titer level after dogs immuned rabies vaccine and determin whether the dogs need to be immuned again.
Animals ; Antibodies, Neutralizing ; analysis ; blood ; Antibodies, Viral ; analysis ; blood ; Dogs ; Gold Colloid ; Immunochromatography ; methods ; Rabies ; prevention & control ; veterinary ; Rabies Vaccines ; immunology ; Rabies virus ; immunology ; Reagent Strips ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Vaccination

In order to amplify F gene of NDV HeB02 strain, one pair of primers was designed according to the GenBank sequence, and a 1.66 kb F gene fragment was obtained by RT-PCR. Sequence analysis indicated that the homologies of the nucleotide sequence of HeB02 strain to those of F48 E9, La Sota and Clone30 strains were 88.1%, 84.9% and 83.8% respectively. The expression plasmid pSV-F was constructed by inserting the F gene into the pVAX1 vector, and transfected into the cultured COS 7 cell line via liposomes. The specific 5.9 kD protein was detected by SDS-PAGE and the immunogenicity of the expressed F protein was confirmed by Western blot, ELISA and neutralization test. 3 week-old SPF chickens were subcutaneously immunized twice at week 0 and 3 with 50 microg DNA of plasmid pSV-F by electroporration. 5 weeks later, all chickenss were challenged with 100 x EID50 of NDV HeB02 strain, 1 week post challenge all chickenss were sampled by larynx swabbing to isolate virus and the HI level of NDV was measured. The results indicated that the virus isolation was negtive in all vaccinated chickenss and positive in all control chickens. The HI titres reached to 8.3log2 +/- 1.30 and 7.2log2 +/- 1.23 induced by NDV vaccine and positive cells (pSV-F), respectivily, the HI titres induced by Control cells (pVAX1) was not detected. Furthermore, the HI titres reached to 9.8log2 +/- 1.55 and 8.9log2 +/- 1.77 in vaccinated group with NDV vaccine and positive cells (pSV-F), respectivily, were sinificantly higher than that of the control cells (pVAX1) immunized group( HI titers was 3.0 log2 +/- 1.40, P < 0.01) after challenge. These results showed that the plasmid pSV-F could be as a candidate of DNA vaccine to provide protective immune response against NDV infection.
Animals ; COS Cells ; Cercopithecus aethiops ; Chickens ; Cloning, Molecular ; Hemagglutination Inhibition Tests ; veterinary ; Newcastle Disease ; immunology ; prevention & control ; Newcastle disease virus ; classification ; genetics ; immunology ; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Transfection ; Vaccination ; Vaccines, DNA ; genetics ; immunology ; Viral Fusion Proteins ; genetics ; immunology ; Viral Vaccines ; genetics ; immunology

A transfer plasmid vector pUC18-US10-VP2 was first constructed by inserting the gene of the enhancer green fluorescent protein(eGFP) fused to the VP2 gene of very virulent Infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) JS strain into the US10 fragment of the Marek's disease virus (MDV) CV1988/Rispens. The recombinant virus, designated as rMDV, was developed by co-transfecting CEF with the transfer plasmid vector and simultaneously infecting with the CVI988/Rispens virus. The PCR and IFA results indicated that the rMDV is stable after 31 passages. Chickens vaccinated with rMDV were protected from challenge with 100LD50 of IBDV JS. The protection ratio of the chickens vaccinated with the 1000PFU, 2000PFU, 5000PFU of the rMDV were 50%, 60%, and 80% respectively. It is interesting that the average histopathology BF lesion scores of chicken group immunized with 5000PFU of rMDV by one-time vaccination was close to that of chicken group vaccinated with IBDV live vaccine NF8 strain for twice (2.0/1.5). There is no difference in protection between the groups (P > 0.05) but significent difference between groups immunized with 5000 PFU of rMDV and with normal MDV. This demonstrated that rMDV expressing VP2 fusion protein was effective vaccine against IBDV in SPF chickens.
Animals ; Birnaviridae Infections ; prevention & control ; veterinary ; Chickens ; Genetic Vectors ; Green Fluorescent Proteins ; genetics ; Infectious bursal disease virus ; genetics ; immunology ; Mardivirus ; genetics ; metabolism ; Recombinant Fusion Proteins ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; immunology ; Recombination, Genetic ; Transfection ; Vaccination ; Vaccines, DNA ; genetics ; immunology ; Viral Structural Proteins ; biosynthesis ; genetics ; immunology ; Viral Vaccines ; genetics ; immunology