Immunization in horses involves the administration of vaccines to stimulate an immune response, thereby providing protection against specific infectious diseases. Vaccines commonly used in equine medicine include those for equine influenza, tetanus, and West Nile virus. The process of immunization aims to prepare the horse's immune system to recognize and combat pathogens upon exposure. Vaccination schedules and protocols may vary based on factors such as age, health status, and regional disease prevalence. This page compiles peer-reviewed research studies and scholarly articles that explore the mechanisms, efficacy, and considerations of immunization practices in equine health.
Soboll G, Breathnach CC, Kydd JH, Hussey SB, Mealey RM, Lunn DP.The control of EHV-1 infection by cytotoxic T-cell responses (CTL) via a reduction in cell associated viremia remains an important goal in horses. Unfortunately, current vaccines are inefficient at inducing these responses. We have identified the immediate early (IE) gene of EHV-1 as a potent stimulator of virus-specific CTL responses in ponies expressing a specific MHC class I serological haplotype (A3/B2). This study was designed to determine if vaccination of A3/B2 MHC I positive ponies with the IE gene could induce protection and immune responses associated with cell mediated immunity. Pon...
Gauci PJ, Wu JQ, Rayner GA, Barabé ND, Nagata LP, Proll DF.DNA vaccines encoding different portions of the structural proteins of western equine encephalitis virus were tested for the efficacy of their protection in a 100% lethal mouse model of the virus. The 6K-E1 structural protein encoded by the DNA vaccine conferred complete protection against challenge with the homologous strain and limited protection against challenge with a heterologous strain.
Fine DL, Jenkins E, Martin SS, Glass P, Parker MD, Grimm B.A multisystem approach was used to assess the efficiency of several methods for inactivation of Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) vaccine candidates. A combination of diverse assays (plaque, in vitro cytopathology and mouse neurovirulence) was used to verify virus inactivation, along with the use of a specific ELISA to measure retention of VEEV envelope glycoprotein epitopes in the development of several inactivated VEEV candidate vaccines derived from an attenuated strain of VEEV (V3526). Incubation of V3526 aliquots at temperatures in excess of 64 degrees C for periods >30 min i...
Horohov DW, Adams AA, Chambers TM.It is widely recognized that advanced age is associated with alterations in immunological responses that likely contribute to increased morbidity and mortality in the elderly population. This decreased efficacy of the immune system with age is referred to as 'immunosenescence' and has been reported for a number of species. Similar age-related changes are seen in horses and are manifested as decreased responsiveness to vaccination in vivo and diminished proliferative responses to mitogens in vitro. The underlying mechanism responsible for these impaired immunological responses remains unknown. ...
Florindo HF, Pandit S, Gonçalves LM, Alpar HO, Almeida AJ.The successful development of particulate vaccines depends on the understanding of their physicochemical and biological characteristics. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to develop and characterise stable surface modified poly(lactic acid) (PLA) nanoparticles, using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), alginate (ALG) and glycolchitosan (GCS) containing a Streptococcus equi enzymatic extract adsorbed onto the surface. The characterisation of the preparations and a physicochemical study of the adsorption process were performed. The adsorption of S. equi proteins is a rapid process reaching, wit...
Ellison S, Witonsky S.Sarcocystis neurona is the principal etiologic agent of equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM). An immunodominant protein of S. neurona, SnSAG-1, is expressed by the majority of S. neurona merozoites isolated from spinal tissues of horses diagnosed with EPM and may be a candidate for diagnostic tests and prophylaxis for EPM. Five horses were vaccinated with adjuvanted recombinant SnSAG1 (rSnSAG1) and 5 control (sham vaccinated) horses were vaccinated with adjuvant only. Serum was evaluated pre- and post-vaccination, prior to challenge, for antibodies against rSnSAG1 and inhibitory effects on...
Guss B, Flock M, Frykberg L, Waller AS, Robinson C, Smith KC, Flock JI.Streptococcus equi subspecies equi (S. equi) is a clonal, equine host-adapted pathogen of global importance that causes a suppurative lymphodendopathy of the head and neck, more commonly known as Strangles. The disease is highly prevalent, can be severe and is highly contagious. Antibiotic treatment is usually ineffective. Live attenuated vaccine strains of S. equi have shown adverse reactions and they suffer from a short duration of immunity. Thus, a safe and effective vaccine against S. equi is highly desirable. The bacterium shows only limited genetic diversity and an effective vaccine coul...
Pusterla N, Jackson R, Mapes SM, Noland J, Stenbom RM, Gebhart C.The humoral immune response and fecal shedding of Lawsonia intracellularis was investigated in 20 weanling foals following intra-rectal administration of frozen-thawed or lyophilized avirulent live L. intracellularis vaccine. Foals received either 30 mL frozen-thawed or lyophilized vaccine intra-rectally, given twice, 4 weeks apart. Serum samples from each foal were collected every 4 weeks for 16 weeks following the first vaccination and tested for anti-L. intracellularis specific IgG by immunoperoxidase monolayer assay. Rectal swabs were collected every other day following the first vaccinati...
Shirafuji H, Kanehira K, Kamio T, Kubo M, Shibahara T, Konishi M, Murakami K, Nakamura Y, Yamanaka T, Kondo T, Matsumura T, Muranaka M, Katayama Y.A group of horses immunized with inactivated Japanese encephalitis (JE) vaccine (JE-Immune Group) and a group of non-immunized horses (Non-Immune Group) were infected with West Nile virus (WNV). After WNV infection, neutralizing (Nt) antibody (Ab) titers to WNV were higher than those to JE virus (JEV) in the Non-Immune Group, but the NtAb titers to JEV were higher than those to WNV during most of the post-challenge observation period in the JE-Immune Group. Immunoglobulin M (IgM) Abs to WNV tested positive in the Non-Immune Group but negative in the JE-Immune Group, except for in one horse. Th...
Nizoli LQ, Conceição FR, Silva SS, Dummer LA, Santos AG, Leite FP.The equine piroplasmosis caused by Theileria equi is one of the most important parasitic diseases of the equine, causing damage to animal health and economic losses. In T. equi, 2 merozoite surface proteins, equi merozoite antigen EMA-1 and EMA-2, have been identified as the most immunodominant antigens. This suggests that these antigens might be used as immunobiological tools. The EMA-1 of Theileria equi was cloned and expressed in the yeast Pichia pastoris. The transformed yeast was grown at high cell density, expressing up to 389 mg x L(-1) of recombinant protein. The protein was concentrat...
Turner CE, Kurupati P, Wiles S, Edwards RJ, Sriskandan S.Currently there is no licensed vaccine against the human pathogen Streptococcus pyogenes. The highly conserved IL-8 cleaving S. pyogenes cell envelope proteinase SpyCEP is surface expressed and is a potential vaccine candidate. A recombinant N-terminal part of SpyCEP (CEP) was expressed and purified. AntiCEP antibodies were found to neutralize the IL-8 cleaving activity of SpyCEP. CEP-immunized mice had reduced bacterial dissemination from focal S. pyogenes intramuscular infection and intranasal infection. We also identified a functional SpyCEP-homolog protease SeCEP, expressed by the equine p...
Chiam R, Sharp E, Maan S, Rao S, Mertens P, Blacklaws B, Davis-Poynter N, Wood J, Castillo-Olivares J.African horse sickness virus (AHSV) causes a non-contagious, infectious disease in equids, with mortality rates that can exceed 90% in susceptible horse populations. AHSV vaccines play a crucial role in the control of the disease; however, there are concerns over the use of polyvalent live attenuated vaccines particularly in areas where AHSV is not endemic. Therefore, it is important to consider alternative approaches for AHSV vaccine development. We have carried out a pilot study to investigate the ability of recombinant modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA) vaccines expressing VP2, VP7 or NS3 genes...
Guthrie AJ, Quan M, Lourens CW, Audonnet JC, Minke JM, Yao J, He L, Nordgren R, Gardner IA, Maclachlan NJ.We describe the development and preliminary characterization of a recombinant canarypox virus vectored (ALVAC) vaccine for protective immunization of equids against African horse sickness virus (AHSV) infection. Horses (n=8) immunized with either of two concentrations of recombinant canarypox virus vector (ALVAC-AHSV) co-expressing synthetic genes encoding the outer capsid proteins (VP2 and VP5) of AHSV serotype 4 (AHSV-4) developed variable titres (<10-80) of virus-specific neutralizing antibodies and were completely resistant to challenge infection with a virulent strain of AHSV-4. In contra...
Causey RC, Artiushin SC, Crowley IF, Weber JA, Homola AD, Kelley A, Stephenson LA, Opitz HM, Guilmain S, Timoney JF.Attenuated Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium MGN707, expressing the SzP protective protein of the MB9 serovar of Streptococcus equi subspecies zooepidemicus (SzP-MB9) was tested for its safety and efficacy as a nebulised intranasal vaccine against streptococcal uterine infections in mares. In a preliminary study, vaccinated mares (n=5) displayed serum, nasal and uterine responses (P<0.05) to S. Typhimurium lipopolysaccharide (St-LPS). Subsequently, vaccinated mares (expressor group, n=7), but not mares vaccinated with the vector only (control group, n=7), displayed significant increas...
El-Kady EM, Ibrahim NM, Wahby AF.The horse antibodies to Naja haje (Nh) elicited in a low dose multi-site immunization protocol were investigated from binding perspective in the context of antivenom maturation. We found that, this protocol evoked the production of lethality neutralizing avid antibodies in the first round of immunization which increases over the successive immunization rounds. The changes and the relative changes in the antibody parameters of each horse were taken as a measure for the efficacy of its immune system to respond by gaining and magnifying the antivenom parameters. While the avidity increases over t...
Patel JR, Heldens JG.Since the refinement of tissue culture techniques for virus isolation and propagation from the mid 1960s onwards, veterinary virology has received much academic and industrial interest, and has now become a major global industry largely centred on vaccine development against economically important virus diseases of food animals. Bio-tech approaches have been widely used for improved vaccines development. While many viral diseases are controlled through vaccination, many still lack safe and efficacious vaccines. Additional challenges faced by academia, industry and governments are likely to com...
Heuzenroeder MW, Barton MD, Vanniasinkam T, Phumoonna T.The aim of this chapter is to provide a strategy for mapping linear antibody epitopes of protein antigens in order to discover candidates for vaccines or diagnostic tests. A set of overlapping peptides was designed and synthesised based upon a known amino acid sequence of the target protein, virulence-associated protein A (VapA) of the bacterium Rhodococcus equi, an important pulmonary pathogen in foals.The peptides were biotinylated and used in an ELISA to screen immune sera from foals. These biotinylated peptides were coated directly onto micro titre plates that had been pre-coated with Neut...
Waghmare A, Deopurkar RL, Salvi N, Khadilkar M, Kalolikar M, Gade SK.The use of adjuvant is of fundamental importance in vaccines formulations and antisera production. Currently selection and use of adjuvant systems in snake antivenom preparation has become a major issue in terms of animal welfare as well as economics. In order to minimize disadvantages associated with traditionally used Freund's adjuvant (FA) in equines and to produce potent polyvalent antivenom against four Indian snake venoms in minimum possible period, a comparison was made between various commercially available non-emulsion/emulsion based adjuvants like IMS 3012, ISA 206 and ISA 35 with In...
Janett F, Stump R, Burger D, Thun R.The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of an anti-GnRH vaccine on testosterone concentration, antibody titer, scrotal width, semen quality and sexual behavior in the stallion. Adverse reactions to the vaccine were also determined. Eight clinically healthy sexually experienced stallions aged between 6 and 15 years from the National Stud in Avenches (Switzerland) were used. Five stallions were immunized 3 times at an interval of 4 and 8 weeks, respectively, with 200 microg of a GnRH-protein conjugate (Equity, CSL Limited, Australia) intramuscularly in the neck and 3 control animals re...
Olafsdóttir G, Svansson V, Ingvarsson S, Marti E, Torsteinsdóttir S.One of the prerequisite for developing DNA vaccines for horses are vectors that are efficiently expressed in horse cells. We have analysed the ectopic expression of the human serum albumin gene in primary horse cells from different tissues. The vectors used are of pcDNA and pUC origin and include the cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter. The pUC vectors contain CMV intron A whereas the pcDNA vectors do not. Insertion of intron A diminished the expression from the pcDNA vectors whereas insertion of a Kozak sequence upstream of the gene in two types of pUC vectors increased significantly the in vitro ...
Barbey C, Budin-Verneuil A, Cauchard S, Hartke A, Laugier C, Pichereau V, Petry S.Rhodococcus equi is one of the most important causes of mortality in foals between 1 and 6 months of age. Although rare, infection also occurs in a variety of other mammals including humans, often following immunosuppression of various causes. Secreted proteins are known to mediate important pathogen-host interactions and consequently are favored candidates for vaccine development as they are the most easily accessible microbial antigens to the immune system. Here, we describe the results of a proteomic analysis based on SDS-PAGE, immunoblot and mass spectrometry, which was carried out aiming ...
Bailat AS, Soutullo AR, García MI, Veaute CM, Garcia L, Racca AL, Malan Borel IS.Gp90 and gp45 synthetic peptides, which mimic conserved sequences of native viral proteins, are recognized by antibodies to equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) in asymptomatic carrier horses and generate humoral and cellular responses in immunized mice. Cytokine mRNA levels were evaluated in equine peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) after in vitro stimulation with gp90 and gp45 with the aim of determining the cytokine profile associated with the proliferative response. Stimulation index (SI) values indicate that 100 and 60% of EIAV-infected horses recognized gp90 and gp45, respective...
Hallamaa RE.Mitochondrial changes of healing sarcoids were followed in 17 affected horses. Biopsies of this fibroblastic skin tumour were collected both before and during the treatment and tumour regression. The therapy consisted of the partial excision of tumours, repeated immunizations with autogenous polymerized tumour particles and supportive dietary treatment with stannic chloride and folic acid. Presence of transformed, electron-dense mitochondria in different phases of healing was studied by successive biopsy from regressing tumours. Additionally, the relation of these transformed mitochondria to t...
Horohov DW, Breathnach CC, Sturgill TL, Rashid C, Stiltner JL, Strong D, Nieman N, Holland RE.While immune modulators are used routinely in equine medicine, their mechanism of action is not always known. Objective: To determine the effect of a commercial preparation of inactivated parapoxvirus ovis (Orf virus; PPVO) on cytokine gene expression by equine peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) both in vitro and in vivo. Methods: PBMC were prepared from 6 mixed-breed yearlings and cultured in vitro with PPVO with or without Concanavalin A (Con A) for 24 h. Effects on the expression of IFNalpha, IFNbeta IFNgamma, TNFalpha and IL-18 were analysed by real time quantitative PCR (RT-PCR). I...
Muirhead TL, McClure JT, Wichtel JJ, Stryhn H, Frederick Markham RJ, McFarlane D, Lunn DP.The proportion of geriatric horses within the equine population has increased in the past decade, but there is limited information on the immune function of these animals. Objective: Aged horses will have a lesser increase in serum antibody response to vaccination. Methods: Thirty-four aged healthy horses (> or = 20 years) and 29 younger adult horses (4-12 years) of various breeds. Methods: All horses were vaccinated with vaccines of killed rabies and influenza virus. Horses in each age group were allocated to receive either rabies or influenza booster vaccine 4 weeks after the initial vaccina...
Chang DC, Liu WJ, Anraku I, Clark DC, Pollitt CC, Suhrbier A, Hall RA, Khromykh AA.DNA vaccines encoding replication-defective viruses are safer than inactivated or live attenuated viruses but may fail to stimulate an immune response sufficient for effective vaccination. We augment the protective capacity of a capsid-deleted flavivirus DNA vaccine by co-expressing the capsid protein from a separate promoter. In transfected cells, the capsid-deleted RNA transcript is replicated and translated to produce secreted virus-like particles lacking the nucleocapsid. This RNA is also packaged with the help of co-expressed capsid protein to form secreted single-round infectious particl...
Phumoonna T, Barton MD, Vanniasinkam T, Heuzenroeder MW.Rhodococcus equi remains a significant bacterial pathogen, causing severe pyogranulomatous pneumonia in foals aged 1-3 months. There is no effective vaccine currently available for the prevention of R. equi pneumonia. DNA vaccines are known to offer specific advantages over conventional vaccines. The aim of this study was to demonstrate efficacy of our recombinant DNA vaccine candidates, namely pcDNA3-Re1, pcDNA3-Re3 and pcDNA3-Re5 by combining a heat shock protein GroEL2 to a virulence-associated protein A (VapA) from R. equi to protect C3H/He mice against the R. equi infection. VapA was show...
Swegen A, Aitken RJ.Feral horses populate vast land areas and often induce significant ecological and economic damage throughout the landscape. Non-lethal population control methods are considered favourable in light of animal welfare, social and ethical considerations; however, no single effective, safe and species-specific contraceptive agent is currently available for use in free-ranging wild and feral horses. This review explores aspects of equine reproductive physiology that may provide avenues for the development of specific and long-lasting immunocontraceptive vaccines and some of the novel strategies that...
Harnacker J, Hainisch EK, Shafti-Keramat S, Kirnbauer R, Brandt S.Equine sarcoids are common therapy-resistant skin tumours induced by bovine papillomavirus type 1 or 2 (BPV1, BPV2) infection. We have previously shown that prophylactic vaccination with BPV1 L1 virus-like particles (VLPs) efficiently protects horses from experimental BPV1-induced pseudo-sarcoid development. Here, we assessed BPV1 L1 VLP vaccine-mediated long-term protection from experimental tumour formation in seven horses 5 years after immunization with three different doses of BPV1 L1 VLPs, and three unvaccinated control animals. Horses were challenged by intradermal inoculation with infec...
Zhou W, Cook RF, Cook SJ, Hammond SA, Rushlow K, Ghabrial NN, Berger SL, Montelaro RC, Issel CJ.The env gene is an excellent candidate for inclusion in any DNA-based vaccine approach against equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV). Unfortunately, this gene is subjected to mutational pressure in E. coli resulting in the introduction of stop codons at the 5' terminus unless it is molecularly cloned using very-low-copy-number plasmid vectors. To overcome this problem, a mammalian expression vector was constructed based on the low-copy-number pLG338-30 plasmid. This permitted the production of full-length EIAV env gene clones (plcnCMVenv) from which low-level expression of the viral surface un...
Turell MJ, O'Guinn ML, Parker MD.Specific mutations associated with attenuation of Venezuelan equine encephalitis (VEE) virus in rodent models were identified during efforts to develop an improved VEE vaccine. Analogous mutations were produced in full-length cDNA clones of the Cba 87 strain of western equine encephalitis (WEE) virus by site-directed mutagenesis in an attempt to develop an improved WEE vaccine. Isogenic viral strains with these mutations were recovered after transfection of baby hamster kidney cells with infectious RNA. We evaluated two of these strains (WE2102 and WE2130) for their ability to replicate in and...
Pretorius A, Van Kleef M, Van Wyngaardt W, Heath J.African horsesickness (AHS) is an infectious but noncontagious viral disease affecting all species of Equidae. The recall immune response of AHSV naïve horses immunised with an attenuated African horsesickness virus serotype 4 (AHSV4) was characterised using immune assays including ELISPOT, real-time PCR (qPCR) and flow cytometry. The recall immune response detected in PBMC isolated from three inoculated horses showed an upregulation of circulating B lymphocytes that correlated with elevated IL-4 mRNA expression indicative of humoral immunity, but reduced frequency of CD4⁺ cells. In additio...
Johnson S.West Nile virus affects many animals, but the highest prevalence of morbidity and mortality is observed in birds, horses, and humans. The purpose of this study was to determine a protocol in birds of prey and corvids, using a vaccine developed for horses. The birds were assigned to five groups. Groups 1-4 received 0.25 ml, 0.5 ml, 0.75 ml, and 1.0 ml, respectively, and group 5 served as a control group. The greatest percentage of seroconversion (58.3%) was observed in the vaccine group that received a dose of 1.0 ml administered thrice, 3 wk apart. This report demonstrates that a vaccine devel...
Martina BE, Koraka P, Osterhaus AD.West Nile virus (WNV) is a neurotropic Flavivirus that was associated with sporadic outbreaks of meningoencephalitis in Africa and the Middle East until 1999, when a more virulent strain emerged in the US that caused thousands of infections among humans and horses, with reported fatality rates between 10 and 50%. Although the epidemiology of WNV is changing into a more endemic pattern in the US, and the incidence of neuroinvasive disease is decreasing, the long-term effects of resolved WNV infections in humans, characterized as persistent movement disorders and various functional disabilities,...
Monahan CM, Taylor HW, Chapman MR, Klei TR.Protection from Strongylus vulgaris infection through immunization with radiation-attenuated third-stage larvae (L3) or crude soluble homogenates from larval or adult stages was examined. Yearling ponies raised parasite-free were divided into 3 immunization groups: radiation-attenuated L3; soluble adult somatic extracts; larval somatic extracts with excretory/secretory products (E/S) from in vitro culture; and 1 medium control group. Ponies were immunized twice; attenuated larvae were administered orally and somatic extracts or controls injected intramuscularly with adjuvant. Approximately 6 w...
Desanti-Consoli H, Bouillon J, Chapuis RJJ.Vaccination against infectious diseases is a cornerstone of veterinary medicine in the prevention of disease transmission, illness severity, and often death in animals. In North American equine medicine, equine vaccines protecting against tetanus, rabies, Eastern and Western equine encephalomyelitis, and West Nile are core vaccines as these have been classified as having a heightened risk of mortality, infectiousness, and endemic status. Some guidelines differ from the label of vaccines, to improve the protection of patients or to decrease the unnecessary administration to reduce potential sid...
Nolan MB, Bertschinger HJ, Roth R, Crampton M, Martins IS, Fosgate GT, Stout TA, Schulman ML.An important determinant in the selection of any contraceptive agent is the impact on ovarian function, both in the short and longer term. In this study, ovarian activity was monitored in mares immunised with one of the following vaccine formulations; native porcine zona pellucida (pZP), recombinant zona pellucida proteins ZP3 and ZP4 (reZP), pZP and reZP combined or a commercially available anti-GnRH vaccine. The ZP antigens were prepared in an adjuvant formulation consisting of 6% polymeric adjuvant (Montanide™ PetGel A, Seppic, France) and 500 μg polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid - TLR3-...
Pavulraj S, Bergmann T, Trombetta CM, Marchi S, Montomoli E, Alami SSE, Ragni-Alunni R, Osterrieder N, Azab W.Equine influenza (EI) is a highly contagious acute respiratory disease of equines that is caused mainly by the H3N8 subtype of influenza A virus. Vaccinating horses against EI is the most effective strategy to prevent the infection. The current study aimed to compare the kinetics of EI-specific humoral- and cell-mediated immunity (CMI) in horses receiving either identical or mixed vaccinations. Two groups of horses were previously (six months prior) vaccinated with either Calvenza 03 EIV EHV (G1) or Fluvac Innovator (G2) vaccine. Subsequently, both groups received a booster single dose of Calv...
Sheoran AS, Timoney JF, Tinge SA, Sundaram P, Curtiss R.The aim of this study was to investigate the intranasal immunogenicity for the horse of a Deltacya Deltacrp-pabA mutant (MGN-707) of Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium (S. typhimurium). MGN-707 caused no sign of disease, was not detected in feces and a single administration induced strong Salmonella-specific serum and nasal mucosal antibody responses. All ponies had made strong salmonella specific serum IgGa, IgGb, IgA and IgM antibody responses by day 25 after the first immunization. IgM responses to salmonella lipopolysaccharide (LPS) were short lived whereas salmonella specific serum ...
Wadsworth AB, Kirkbride MB.Horses immunized to Type I pneumococci developed serum, 0.1 cc. of which protected against 0.5 cc. of a virulent culture, 0.000001 cc. of which killed mice in less than 40 hours. Protective tests of serum from horses immunized to Type II organisms varied, 0.1 cc. protecting, however, in certain instances against 0.1 and 0.01 cc. of virulent homologous culture. Types I and II sera obtained in our experiments with culture sediment and whole culture did not vary markedly for a given type and corresponded closely in their protective titer with samples of sera received from The Rockefeller Institut...
Ben David A, Barnea A, Torgeman A, Diamant E, Dor E, Schwartz A, Rosen O, Caspi N, Saraf M, Lerer E, Adar Y, Lupo E, Toister E, Zichel R.Botulism is a paralytic disease caused by botulinum neurotoxins (BoNTs). Equine antitoxin is currently the standard therapy for botulism in human. The preparation of equine antitoxin relies on the immunization of horses with botulinum toxoid, which suffers from low yield and safety limitations. The Hc fragment of BoNTs was suggested to be a potent antibotulinum subunit vaccine. The current study presents a comparative evaluation of equine-based toxoid-derived antitoxin (TDA) and subunit-derived antitoxin (SDA). The potency of recombinant Hc/A, Hc/B, and Hc/E in mice was similar to that of toxo...
Kinnunen RE, Tallberg T, Stenbäck H, Sarna S.Twenty-one horses with sarcoid tumours were treated by bio-immunotherapy using autogenous vaccines during 1991-1997. At operation the base of the tumour was left in the skin and autovaccines were made from extirpated tumour tissue by polymerization. The horses thus formed their own internal control group. One of 12 horses having a primary tumour, and four of 9 horses suffering recurrent tumours, prior to bio-immunotherapy, developed single recurrences. Four of these five horses suffering recurrence were treated anew, leading to remission. Disease-free intervals were longer for primary (P = 0.0...
El-Kady EM, Ibrahim NM, Wahby AF.The horse antibodies to Naja haje (Nh) elicited in a low dose multi-site immunization protocol were investigated from binding perspective in the context of antivenom maturation. We found that, this protocol evoked the production of lethality neutralizing avid antibodies in the first round of immunization which increases over the successive immunization rounds. The changes and the relative changes in the antibody parameters of each horse were taken as a measure for the efficacy of its immune system to respond by gaining and magnifying the antivenom parameters. While the avidity increases over t...
Crandell RA, Mock RE, Lock TF.Bovine herpesvirus 1247 (one dose) was given subcutaneously to five pregnant pony mares between 227 and 319 days of their gestations. There were no adverse clinical reactions, and the virus was not recovered from nasal swabs collected during a 2-week period after vaccination. Four ponies foaled full-term, live, healthy foals. The foal of the fifth mare (No. 1) was found dead, but on the basis of the pathologic and virologic examinations, the virus was not considered to be the cause of the death. At 3 weeks after vaccination, the pregnant pony mares had a 13- to 250-fold increase in serum antib...
Arfuso F, Giudice E, Di Pietro S, Piccione G, Giannetto C.This study aimed to evaluate the hematological and serum protein electrophoretic profiles of horses after inactivated West Nile virus (WNV) vaccine administration. Blood samples were collected from 10 horses before (T0), after 24 h, 48 h, 72 h, 1 week, 2 weeks and 3 weeks (T1, T2, T3, T4, T5 and T6) from the first WNV vaccine-dose administration, before the vaccine-booster (TPRE), and after 24 h, 48 h, 72 h, 1 week, 2 weeks and 3 weeks (T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6) from the WNV vaccine-booster. There was a significant increase in lymphocytes and a decrease in neutrophils after both the first vaccin...
Rohrbach BW, Ward DA, Hendrix DV, Cawrse-Foss M, Moyers TD.To evaluate the effect of vaccination against leptospirosis on frequency and days to recurrence of uveitis and progression of disease in horses with equine recurrent uveitis (ERU). Methods: Forty-one horses with ERU. Methods: Horses were randomly assigned to experimental (vaccinated) or control groups. Vaccine containing six serovars of Leptospira or placebo was administered, an ophthalmic examination performed and blood samples drawn on days 0, 28, 180 and 365. Antibody titers were measured against each serovar. Recurrence of uveitis was verified by ophthalmic examination. Results of the init...
Grosenbaugh DA, Backus CS, Karaca K, Minke JM, Nordgren RM.A new recombinant West Nile virus (WNV) vaccine has been licensed for use in horses. Prior to the availability of the recombinant vaccine in 2004, the only equine WNV vaccine available on the market had been an inactivated vaccine. Since the recombinant vaccine only expresses selected viral genes, the question could be posed as to whether a single dose of the recombinant vaccine would be effective in producing an anamnestic serologic response in horses previously vaccinated with an inactivated WNV vaccine. In this study we demonstrate that vaccination of horses with a canarypox-vectored recomb...
Van Oirschot JT, Bruin G, de Boer-Luytze E, Smolders G.Foals that were born to mares vaccinated twice a year against influenza had moderate to high haemagglutination-inhibition antibody titers at 24 hours after birth. The foals were vaccinated at six and ten weeks of age, and again at three to five months after birth. Four months after the third vaccination no antibodies against A/H7N7 and A/H3N8 influenza viruses were detected in these foals. Thus, maternal antibodies probably prevented the development of antibodies against equine influenza virus after vaccination. Foals born to the same mares one year later were monitored to determine the rate o...
Camire AC, O'Bier NS, Patel DT, Cramer NA, Straubinger RK, Breitschwerdt EB, Funk RA, Marconi RT.Lyme disease (LD) is a tick-transmitted bacterial infection caused by Borreliella burgdorferi and other closely related species collectively referred to as the LD spirochetes. The LD spirochetes encode an uncharacterized family of proteins originally designated rotein amily welve (PF12). In B. burgdorferi strain B31, PF12 consists of four plasmid-carried genes, encoding BBK01, BBG01, BBH37, and BBJ08. Henceforth, we designate the PF12 proteins amily welve ipoprotein (Ftl) (FtlA) (BBK01), FtlB (BBG01), FtlC (BBH37), and FtlD (BBJ08). The goal of this study was to assess the potential utility o...
Guidolin FR, Tambourgi DV, Guidolin R, Marcelino JR, Okamoto CK, Magnoli FC, Queiroz GP, Dias da Silva W.Crotalus durissus terrificus, C. d. collilineatus, C. d. cascavella and C. d. marajoensis are responsible minor but severe snake bites in Brazil. The venoms of these snakes share the presence of crotoxin, a neurotoxin comprising of two associated components, crotapotin and phospholipase A2 (PLA2). Treatment of the victims with specific antiserum is the unique effective therapeutic measure. The ability of anti-Crotalus antisera produced by the routine using crude venom to immunize horses or purified crotoxin and PLA2 as individual immunogens was compared. Antisera obtained from horses immunized...
Phumoonna T, Barton MD, Vanniasinkam T, Heuzenroeder MW.Rhodococcus equi remains a significant bacterial pathogen, causing severe pyogranulomatous pneumonia in foals aged 1-3 months. There is no effective vaccine currently available for the prevention of R. equi pneumonia. DNA vaccines are known to offer specific advantages over conventional vaccines. The aim of this study was to demonstrate efficacy of our recombinant DNA vaccine candidates, namely pcDNA3-Re1, pcDNA3-Re3 and pcDNA3-Re5 by combining a heat shock protein GroEL2 to a virulence-associated protein A (VapA) from R. equi to protect C3H/He mice against the R. equi infection. VapA was show...
Ozawa Y, Bahrami S.Formalized African horse-sickness (AHS) type 9 virus cultivated in monkey kidney stable (MS) cell cultures was experimentally used for immunizing horses. Inactivated vaccines prepared either from viscerotropic or neurotropic type 9 AHS virus produced antibodies in vaccinated horses. Immunity developed in all horses vaccinated with various amounts of the vaccine, and protected them from infection, when challenged 5 weeks after vaccination.
Wilson PJ, Oertli EH, Hunt PR, Sidwa TJ.To determine whether postexposure rabies prophylaxis (PEP) in domestic animals, as mandated in Texas, has continued to be effective and to evaluate preexposure or postexposure vaccination failures from 2000 through 2009. Methods: Retrospective case series. Methods: 1,014 unvaccinated domestic animals (769 dogs, 126 cats, 72 horses, 39 cattle, 3 sheep, 4 goats, and 1 llama) that received PEP and 12 vaccinated domestic animals (7 dogs and 5 cats) with possible failure of protection. Methods: Zoonotic incident reports from 2000 through 2009 were reviewed for information regarding unvaccinated dom...
Karam B, Hines S, Skipper L, Pusterla N.Serum amyloid A (SAA) is considered a major acute phase protein (APP) in horses. Serum amyloid A stall-side assays are commercially available to assess the inflammatory response of patients with various infectious and noninfectious conditions. The objective of this study was to determine the analytical performance of a new point-of-care (POC) assay for the measurement of SAA in whole blood and plasma of horses. One hundred and sixty blood samples were collected from 60 horses at various time points after immunization with an equine core vaccine. Analytical validation of the SAA POC assay inclu...
