An octavalent vaccine provides pregnant gilts protection against a highly virulent porcine parvovirus strain.

BACKGROUND: Porcilis® Ery+Parvo+Lepto is an octavalent inactivated ready-to-use vaccine that contains Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae (Ery), porcine parvovirus (PPV), and six serogroups of Leptospira (Lepto). The efficacy of Porcilis® Ery + Parvo+Lepto against reproductive problems associated with porcine parvovirus (PPV) infection was evaluated in pregnant gilts. For this, a group of ninegilts was vaccinated twice (at 5 and 6 months old) with Porcilis® Ery + Parvo+Lepto (Group 1), while a group of eight gilts was included as unvaccinated controls (Group 2). All pigs were artificially inseminated 4 weeks after the second vaccination. They were challenged during early gestation with PPV-27a, a virulent cluster D strain, and euthanized to collect their offspring by hysterectomy around day 90 in pregnancy. Antibody responses against PPV in gilts were measured, and the presence of PPV in progeny was also determined. RESULTS: No clinical signs were observed after vaccination. After PPV challenge, all foetuses from the vaccinated gilts were alive (132/132), while in the unvaccinated group only 41% were alive (46/112), 19.6% were dead and 39.4% of the offspring (44/112) were mummified. PPV could be detected by qPCR in 14% of the progeny from vaccinated gilts at an average of 4.7 log10/ml, whereas this was significantly higher in the control group, where 90% of the progeny were PPV positive, with titres of 9.8 log10/ml on average. CONCLUSIONS: The present study demonstrates that vaccination of gilts with Porcilis® Ery + Parvo+Lepto was safe and induced an immune response sufficient to protect progeny against PPV by reducing transplacental infection.

The antibody response in the bovine mammary gland is influenced by the adjuvant and the site of subcutaneous vaccination.

Intramammary infections in cattle resulting in mastitis have detrimental effects on cows' well-being, lifespan and milk production. In the host defense against S. aureus mastitis antibodies are thought to play an important role. To explore potential ways to increase antibody titers in the bovine mammary gland the effects of various adjuvants on the magnitude, isotype, and neutralizing capacity of antibodies produced following subcutaneous vaccine administration at different immunization sites were analyzed. In this study, α-toxoid was used as a model antigen and formulated in three different alum-based adjuvants: Alum-Saponin, Alum-Oil, and Alum-Saponin-Oil. Vaccines were administered near the suspensory ligament of the udder or in the lateral triangular area of the neck. At both immunization sites, immunization with α-toxoid in Alum-Saponin-Oil resulted in higher specific antibody titers in milk and serum as compared with Alum-Oil and Alum-Saponin, without favoring an IgG1, IgG2, or IgA response. Furthermore, the neutralizing capacity of milk serum and serum following immunization near the udder and in the neck was higher when Alum-Saponin-Oil was used as adjuvant compared with Alum-Oil and Alum-Saponin. Prime immunizations near the udder effectively increased both antibody isotype titers and neutralization titers, while prime plus boost immunizations were required to induce similar effects following immunization in the neck. Results indicate that subcutaneous administration of an Alum-Saponin-Oil based vaccine near the udder could be further explored for the development of a one-shot vaccination strategy to efficiently increase intramammary antibody responses.