Evaluation of safety and immunogenicity of rift valley fever vaccines mp-12 and armp 12δnsm21/384 in sheep, goats and calves administered intradermally

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Date

2018

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Publisher

Sokoine University of Agriculture

Abstract

Rift valley fever (RVF) is a zoonotic disease caused by Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) with impact on animal and human health. Vaccines developed against RVF have safety and efficacy concerns and administered by needles posing risks of RVFV transmission. This study reports the safety and immunogenicity of attenuated RVF MP-12 and its recombinant arMP-12ΔNSm21/384 vaccines. A total of 32 sheep, 15 goats and 23 zebu calves were vaccinated with 1x10 5 plaque forming units (PFU)/ml of MP-12 or arMP- 12ΔNSm21/384 RVF vaccine candidates intramuscularly or intradermally. Six animals from each species were vaccinated with Eagle's Minimum Essential Medium (EMEM) as negative controls. RVFV neutralizing antibody was tested in serum samples collected on days 0, 3, 5, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 70, 84 and 87. Rectal temperatures were taken on days of blood collection and signs of illness were observed daily post vaccination (PV). On day 87 PV, all intramuscularly vaccinated animals were re-vaccinated with 1 x 10 4 PFU/ml of the MP-12 vaccine and blood samples were obtained on days 7, 14, and 21 PV. The vaccines were found to be safe and all vaccinated animals produced neutralizing antibodies against RVFV. Higher antibody response was observed in animals that were vaccinated intradermally with arMP-12ΔNSm21/384 RVF vaccine with geometric mean antibody titers (GMT) of 1113 in goats, 210 in sheep and 22 in zebu calves as compared to intramuscularly vaccinated animals with GMT of 160 in goats, 51 in sheep and 63 in zebu calves. On re-vaccination, the antibody titers increased rapidly, reaching maximum titers of 470 in sheep, 640 cattle and 640 in goats. Overall, this study indicates that these RVFV vaccines are promising candidate for the prevention of RVF among domestic ruminants, however intradermal vaccination works better for sheep and goats while intramuscular vaccination works better for zebu calves.

Description

MSc. Dissertation 2018

Keywords

Rift Valley fever virus, RVFV transmission, RVFV Vaccination, Goats, Zebu calves

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