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.
Baumgarten CM, Delph Miller KM, Davis EG, Beard LA, Blevins CA, Wottowa M, Hill M, Larson RL.To measure the effect of routine vaccination on serum amyloid A (SAA) concentration in apparently healthy horses. We hypothesized that routine vaccination would increase SAA in healthy horses. Methods: 21 apparently healthy client-owned horses and 15 Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine-owned horses. Methods: In experiment 1 (n = 8 horses), a blinded, randomized, prospective, crossover study was performed. Horses were either vaccinated (rabies, tetanus, West Nile, Eastern and Western equine encephalomyelitis, equine herpesvirus-1/-4, influenza) or administered saline, and SAA...
Hu Y, Wu G, Jia Q, Zhang B, Sun W, Sa R, Zhang S, Cai W, Jarhen , Ran D, Liu J.Equid alphaherpesvirus 1 (EqAHV1) is a viral pathogen known to cause respiratory disease, neurologic syndromes, and abortion storms in horses. Currently, there are no vaccines that provide complete protection against EqAHV1. Marker vaccines and the differentiation of infected and vaccinated animals (DIVA) strategy are effective for preventing and controlling outbreaks but have not been used for the prevention of EqAHV1 infection. Glycoprotein 2 (gp2), located on the envelope of viruses (EqAHV1), exhibits high antigenicity and functions as a molecular marker for DIVA. In this study, a series of...
Lovett AL, Riley CB, Chapman V, Bell B, Bishop B, Grierson A, Johnstone LJ, Sykes BW.Horses are exquisitely sensitive to tetanus neurotoxin and are exposed to the risk of infection with throughout life. The vaccine against tetanus is highly effective at preventing disease, whereas tetanus in unvaccinated populations is associated with high mortality rates. Current guidelines in New Zealand and Australia for the available vaccine contain contradictions and limitations surrounding the optimal tetanus immunisation protocols for both adult horses and foals. This review critically evaluates the scientific literature on tetanus prophylaxis in horses within the context of equine pra...
Abreu MC, Conrad NL, Gonçalves VS, Leite FPL.Probiotic microorganisms can stimulate an immune response and increase the efficiency of vaccines. For example, Bacillus toyonensis is a nonpathogenic, Gram-positive bacterium that has been used as a probiotic in animal supplementation. It induces immunomodulatory effects and increases the vaccine response in several species. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of B. toyonensis supplementation on the modulation of the immune response in horses vaccinated with recombinant Clostridium tetani toxin. Twenty horses were vaccinated twice, with an interval of 21 days between doses, and equally di...
Sánchez A, Durán G, Segura Á, Herrera M, Vargas M, Villalta M, Arguedas M, Moscoso E, Umaña D, Gómez A, Gutiérrez JM, León G.Snakebite envenomation inflicts a high burden of mortality and morbidity in sub-Saharan Africa. Antivenoms are the mainstay in the therapy of envenomation, and there is an urgent need to develop antivenoms of broad neutralizing efficacy for this region. The venoms used as immunogens to manufacture snake antivenoms are normally selected considering their medical importance and availability. Additionally, their ability to induce antibody responses with high neutralizing capability should be considered, an issue that involves the immunization scheme and the animal species being immunized. Results...
Pitchers KG, Boakye OD, Campeotto I, Daly JM.African horse sickness is a devastating viral disease of equids. It is transmitted by biting midges of the genus with mortalities reaching over 90% in naïve horses. It is endemic to sub-Saharan Africa and is seasonally endemic in many parts of southern Africa. However, outbreaks in Europe and Asia have occurred that caused significant economic issues. There are attenuated vaccines available for control of the virus but concerns regarding the safety and efficacy means that alternatives are sought. One promising alternative is the use of virus-like particles in vaccine preparations, which have...
Cendejas PM, Goodman AG.West Nile virus (WNV) is capable of causing severe neurologic disease in both humans and equines, making it a disease of importance in both human medicine and veterinary medicine. No targeted treatments exist for WNV infection in either humans or equines. Infection is treated symptomatically through management of symptoms like fever and seizures. As treatment for WNV is purely supportive, the response to WNV has focused primarily on methods of disease prevention. To this end, research efforts have yielded several effective vaccines for equine use as well as numerous conventional mosquito contr...
O'Kennedy MM, Roth R, Ebersohn K, du Plessis LH, Mamputha S, Rutkowska DA, du Preez I, Verschoor JA, Lemmer Y.A safe, highly immunogenic multivalent vaccine to protect against all nine serotypes of African horse sickness virus (AHSV), will revolutionise the AHS vaccine industry in endemic countries and beyond. Plant-produced AHS virus-like particles (VLPs) and soluble viral protein 2 (VP2) vaccine candidates were developed that have the potential to protect against all nine serotypes but can equally well be formulated as mono- and bi-valent formulations for localised outbreaks of specific serotypes. In the first interferon α/β receptor knock-out (IFNAR-/-) mice trial conducted, a nine-serotype (nona...
Atwa AS, Gomaa L, Elmenofy W, Amer HM, Ahmed BM.Equine influenza (EI) is a transmissible viral respiratory sickness of the family. Two viruses, H7N7 and H3N8 caused EI; however, H7N7 has not been detected for decades. H3N8 has circulated and bifurcated into Eurasian and American lineages. The latter subsequently diversified into Kentucky, South America, and Florida sub-lineages. Florida clade 1 (FC1) and Florida clade 2 (FC2) strains are the only circulating EI viruses (EIVs) in the meantime. Immunization is considered the major means for the prevention and control of EI infection. Using disparate technologies and platforms, several vaccin...
Harmsen MM, Ackerschott B, de Smit H.Single-domain antibody fragments (sdAbs) can be isolated from heavy-chain-only antibodies that occur in camelids or the heavy chain of conventional antibodies, that also occur in camelids. Therapeutic application of sdAbs is often complicated by their low serum half-life. Fusion to sdAb that bind to long-lived serum proteins albumin or IgG can prolong serum half-life of fusion partners. Such studies mostly focused on human application. For half-life prolongation in multiple animal species novel species cross-reacting sdAb are needed. We here describe the isolation from immunized llamas of sdAb...
Oliveira Orsi R, Zaluski R, de Barros LC, Barraviera B, Pimenta DC, Ferreira Junior RS.Africanized bees have spread across the Americas since 1956 and consequently resulted in human and animal deaths attributed to massive attacks related to exposure from Argentina to the USA. In Brazil, more than 100,000 accidents were registered in the last 5 years with a total of 303 deaths. To treat such massive attacks, Brazilian researchers developed the first specific antivenom against Africanized honey bee sting exposure. This unique product, the first of its kind in the world, has been safely tested in 20 patients during a Phase 2 clinical trial. To develop the antivenom, a standardize...
Faber E, van Schalkwyk A, Ivy Tshilwane S, Van Kleef M, Pretorius A.The viral proteins VP1-1, VP2, VP4, VP7 and NS3, of African horse sickness virus serotype 4 (AHSV4), have previously been identified to contain CD8+ T cell epitopes. In this study, overlapping peptides spanning the entire sequences of these AHSV4 proteins were synthesized and used to map epitopes. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) isolated from five horses immunized with an attenuated AHSV4 were stimulated in vitro with the synthesized peptides. Various memory immune assays were used to identify the individual peptides that contain CD8+ T cell epitopes, CD4+ T cell epitopes and linear ...
Elliott S, Olufemi OT, Daly JM.Vaccines against equine influenza have been available since the late 1960s, but outbreaks continue to occur periodically, affecting both vaccinated and unvaccinated animals. The aim of this study was to systematically evaluate the efficacy of vaccines against influenza A virus in horses (equine IAV). For this, PubMed, CAB abstracts, and Web of Science were searched for controlled trials of equine IAV vaccines published up to December 2020. Forty-three articles reporting equine IAV vaccination and challenge studies in previously naïve equids using an appropriate comparison group were included ...
Miranda ALS, Antunes BC, Minozzo JC, Lima SA, Botelho AFM, Campos MTG, Chávez-Olórtegui C, Soto-Blanco B.Antivenom production against venom relies on horses being immunized and bled for plasma harvest. One horse can partake in several cycles of antivenom production, which will require years of constant venom and adjuvant inoculation and bleeding. The actual impact on the health of horses that participate in several antivenom-producing cycles is unknown. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the general health status of horses that underwent at least six cycles of loxoscelic antivenom production. Seven crossbred horses that had partaken in six to eight complete antivenom-producing cycles were u...
Liu L, Yu W, Cai K, Ma S, Wang Y, Ma Y, Zhao H. () is a zoonotic opportunistic pathogen that can cause life-threatening infections. The rapid evolution of multidrug-resistant and the fact that there is no currently licensed effective vaccine against warrant the need for vaccine development. Reverse vaccinology (RV), which involves screening a pathogen's entire genome and proteome using various web-based prediction tools, is considered one of the most effective approaches for identifying vaccine candidates. Here, we performed a pangenome analysis to determine the core proteins of . We then used the RV approach to examine the subcellular l...
Fox CB, Khandhar AP, Khuu L, Phan T, Kinsey R, Cordero D, Gutiérrez JM, León G.Enhancement of antivenom immune responses in horses through adjuvant technology improves antivenom production efficiency, but substantial local reactogenicity associated with some traditional veterinary adjuvants limits their usability. To explore modern adjuvant systems suitable for generating antivenom responses in horses, we first assessed their physicochemical compatibility with Bothrops asper snake venom. Liposome and nanoparticle aluminum adjuvants exhibited changes in particle size and phospholipid content after mixing with venom, whereas squalene emulsion-based adjuvants remained stabl...
Kinoshita Y, Yamanaka T, Kodaira K, Niwa H, Uchida-Fujii E, Ueno T.A two-dose revaccination against tetanus is recommended for horses over 2 years old in Japan with no history of vaccination in the previous year. Here, the need for two-dose revaccination was evaluated in terms of antibody titers for each vaccine type, namely monovalent or multivalent. There was no difference in antibody titers between one- and two-dose regimens for up to 1 year, except at 8 weeks with the multivalent vaccine, and all horses had sufficient antibody titers for 1 year of tetanus prophylaxis. These results suggest that one-dose revaccination, regardless of the vaccine type, is as...
Huertas RM, Arguedas M, Estrada JM, Moscoso E, Umaña D, Solano G, Vargas M, Segura Á, Sánchez A, Herrera M, Villalta M, Arroyo-Portilla C....During the production of snake antivenoms, the animals used as immunoglobulin source are subjected to processes that could deteriorate their physical condition. Therefore, these conditions must be carefully designed and validated. In this work, the immunization and bleeding protocols applied to horses used to produce the African polyspecific antivenom EchiTAb-plus-ICP were evaluated regarding their effects on the horses' health. The study focused on horses that had been previously immunized with venoms and then received periodic booster venom injections for antivenom production. It was found t...
Hainisch EK, Jindra C, Kirnbauer R, Brandt S.Papillomaviruses (PVs) are a family of small DNA tumor viruses that can induce benign lesions or cancer in vertebrates. The observation that animal PV capsid-proteins spontaneously self-assemble to empty, highly immunogenic virus-like particles (VLPs) has led to the establishment of vaccines that efficiently protect humans from specific PV infections and associated diseases. We provide an overview of PV-induced tumors in horses and other equids, discuss possible routes of PV transmission in equid species, and present recent developments aiming at introducing the PV VLP-based vaccine technology...
Wu CJ, Liaw GW, Chen CK, Ouyang CH, Yang YX, Chu LC, Hsiao YC, Liu CH, Hsieh WC, Wang CY, Liou YS, Liu CC, Hsieh CH.Snakebite envenoming is a public health issue linked to high mortality and morbidity rates worldwide. Although antivenom has been the mainstay treatment for envenomed victims receiving medical care, the diverse therapeutic efficacy of the produced antivenom is a major limitation. is a venomous snake that poses significant concern of risks to human life in Taiwan, and successful production of antivenom against envenoming remains a considerable challenge. Among groups of horses subjected to immunization schedules, few or none subsequently meet the quality required for further scale-up harvesti...
Gysens L, Depuydt E, Patruno M, Haspeslagh M, Spaas JH, Martens A.Sarcoids are the most common equine skin tumours Although they do not metastasize, they can be locally aggressive and cause significant clinical symptoms in affected horses. Despite being common, very little is known about the host immune response and the biological mechanisms underlying persistence and recurrence of equine sarcoids. The latter reflects the need for further research in this field. This in-vitro study used sarcoid explants from horses with naturally occurring sarcoids (n = 12) to evaluate the induction of a humoral immune response directed against equine sarcoid-derived bovin...
Bannai H, Kambayashi Y, Nemoto M, Ohta M, Tsujimura K.The immune response and protective efficacy of a modified equid alphaherpesvirus 1 (EHV-1) vaccine administered by two different routes were tested in horses. Horses that received intramuscular (IM) priming and an intranasal (IN) booster with a 28-day interval (IM-IN group [n = 6]), IN priming and IM booster (IN-IM group [n = 5]), or no vaccination (control group [n = 6]) were challenged with EHV-1 strain 10-I-224 28 days after the second vaccination. Both vaccinated groups had significantly higher serum virus-neutralizing titers than the control group, with increased levels of ser...
Balena V, Pradhan SS, Bera BC, Anand T, Sansanwal R, Khetmalis R, Madhwal A, Bernela M, Supriya K, Pavulraj S, Tripathi BN, Virmani N.Equid alphaherpesvirus 1 (EHV-1) infection causes significant health problems in equines. The EHV-1 infection leads to abortion storm in mares, respiratory disease and myeloencephalopathy. Despite the wide use of vaccines, the outbreaks of EHV-1 infections keep occurring globally, suggesting the need for the development of improved vaccines. Gene deletion attenuated mutant viruses could be a good candidate for the development of modified live vaccines. Here, we report the generation of mutant EHV-1 by deleting virulence (glycoprotein E & internal repeat 6; IR6) and immune evasive (pUL43 &a...
Jones MM, Nuñez CMV.Stress responses can be triggered by several physical and social factors, prompting physiological reactions including increases in glucocorticoid concentrations. In a population of feral horses (Equus caballus) on Shackleford Banks, North Carolina, females previously immunized with the immunocontraceptive agent porcine zona pellucida (PZP) change social groups (bands) more often than unimmunized females, disrupting the social stability within the population. We assessed the effects of increased female group changing behavior (or female turnover) on individual male stress by comparing fecal cor...
Carnet F, Paillot R, Fortier C, Hue ES, Briot L, de Geoffroy F, Vidalain PO, Pronost S.Equine influenza virus (EIV) is responsible for recurring outbreaks that are detrimental to the equine industry. Vaccination is key for prevention, but the effectiveness and duration of protection provided by existing vaccines is often insufficient. In order to improve vaccine efficacy, we evaluated the benefit of immune stimulation with inactivated Parapoxvirus ovis (iPPVO) on the antibody response induced by a vaccine boost against EIV. A whole inactivated ISCOMatrix-adjuvanted equine influenza vaccine was administered alone ( = 10) or combined with iPPVO injections at D0, D2 and D4 post vac...
Fukushi N, Fukushi H.Equine herpesvirus type 1 (EHV-1) is a devastating pathogen of horses, their natural hosts, and causes fatal encephalitis in non-natural hosts. We previously demonstrated that acylation of the tegument protein UL11 is required for viral replication in cultured cells. We created a mutant virus (EHV-1 UL12 trunc UL11 G2AC7AC9A), in which glycyl and cysteinyl residues at positions 2, 7 and 9 of UL11 that are normally acylated were replaced with alanyl residues. This virus, designated the 2/7/9 mutant, has a limited-replication cycle (LRC), in which replication stops after just a few cycles. Here,...
Dürrwald R, Kolodziejek J, Oh DY, Herzog S, Liebermann H, Osterrieder N, Nowotny N.(1) Background: Vaccination of horses and sheep against Borna disease (BD) was common in endemic areas of Germany in the 20th century but was abandoned in the early 1990s. The recent occurrence of fatal cases of human encephalitis due to Borna disease virus 1 (BoDV-1) has rekindled the interest in vaccination. (2) Methods: The full genomes of the BD live vaccine viruses "Dessau" and "Giessen" were sequenced and analyzed for the first time. All vaccination experiments followed a proof-of-concept approach. Dose-titration infection experiments were performed in rabbits, based on both cell culture...
Thompson MA, McCann BE, Simmons RB, Rhen T.Contraceptive vaccines are used to reduce birth rates in wild and feral animal populations. While the immunocontraceptive GonaCon-Equine has proven effective in reducing fertility among female feral horses, there is individual variation in the duration of infertility following treatment. To identify genetic factors influencing the effectiveness of GonaCon-Equine, we conducted a genome-wide association study of 88 mares from a feral population genotyped using the Illumina GGP Equine 70k SNP array. Contraceptive treatment schedules and long-term foaling rates have been recorded for each individu...
AbdelKhalek A, Ostafe R, Olave C, HogenEsch H, Turner JW.Immunization with porcine zona pellucida (PZP) proteins is being used successfully to induce infertility in wildlife including horses. However, widespread adoption of this method to control the growth of horse populations requires further refinement in order to induce long-term infertility, reduce the frequency and severity of injection site reactions, and make the vaccines easier to administer. The next generation of PZP-based vaccines will likely be a controlled-release formulation with different adjuvants from the Freund's adjuvants used in existing vaccines. We evaluated the response of eq...
European journal of immunologySeptember 11, 2002
Volume 32, Issue 9 2598-2606 doi: 10.1002/1521-4141(200209)32:93.0.CO;2-#
Deeg CA, Thurau SR, Gerhards H, Ehrenhofer M, Wildner G, Kaspers B.Equine recurrent uveitis (ERU) is an inflammatory eye disease with high similarity to uveitis in man. It is the only spontaneous animal model for uveitis and the most frequent eye disease in horses affecting up to 10% of the population. To further investigate the pathophysiology of ERU we now report the establishment of an inducible uveitis model in horses. An ERU-like disease was elicited in seven out of seven horses by injection of interphotoreceptor retinoid-binding protein (IRBP) in complete Freund's adjuvant. Control horses did not develop uveitis. The disease model is characterized by a ...
Dennis SJ, Meyers AE, Guthrie AJ, Hitzeroth II, Rybicki EP.African horse sickness (AHS) is a debilitating and often fatal viral disease affecting horses in much of Africa, caused by the dsRNA orbivirus African horse sickness virus (AHSV). Vaccination remains the single most effective weapon in combatting AHS, as there is no treatment for the disease apart from good animal husbandry. However, the only commercially available vaccine is a live-attenuated version of the virus (LAV). The threat of outbreaks of the disease outside its endemic region and the fact that the LAV is not licensed for use elsewhere in the world, have spurred attempts to develop an...
Chirnside ED, de Vries AA, Mumford JA, Rottier PJ.Complementary DNAs encoding ORFs 2 to 7 equine arteritis virus (EAV) have been cloned into the expression vector pGEX to produce glutathione-S-transferase fusion proteins. Recombinant proteins were affinity purified and screened in ELISA with equine sera to identify immunoreactive polypeptides. The large envelope glycoprotein (GL) was identified as the most reactive to EAV-positive equine sera and an immuno-dominant epitope was mapped between amino acids 55 and 98 by subcloning and expression. A fusion protein covering this region and a GL-specific synthetic peptide (residues 75 through 97) in...
Saiz JC.West Nile virus (WNV) is a widely distributed enveloped flavivirus transmitted by mosquitoes, which main hosts are birds. The virus sporadically infects equids and humans with serious economic and health consequences, as infected individuals can develop a severe neuroinvasive disease that can even lead to death. Nowadays, no WNV-specific therapy is available and vaccines are only licensed for use in horses but not for humans. While several methodologies for WNV vaccine development have been successfully applied and have contributed to significantly reducing its incidence in horses in the US, n...
Paillot R, Kydd JH, Sindle T, Hannant D, Edlund Toulemonde C, Audonnet JC, Minke JM, Daly JM.In horses, equine influenza virus (EIV) is a leading cause of respiratory disease. Conventional inactivated vaccines induce a short-lived immune response. By comparison, natural infection confers a long-term immunity to re-infection. An aim of new equine influenza vaccines is to more closely mimic natural infection in order to achieve a better quality of immunity. A new live recombinant vaccine derived from the canarypox virus vector and expressing haemagglutinin genes of EIV (subtype H3N8) has been developed. Stimulation of the immune system was studied after immunisation with this canarypox-...
Raabe ML, Issel CJ, Cook SJ, Cook RF, Woodson B, Montelaro RC.We have previously reported that immunization of ponies with a baculovirus-expressed recombinant surface unit envelope protein (rgp90) for equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) resulted in enhancement of disease symptoms and virus replication in 4 of 4 vaccine recipients subjected to a heterologous virus challenge (rpg90 I vaccine trial) (Wang et al., 1994). To extend these studies of EIAV vaccine enhancement, two additional and independent rgp90 vaccine trials (rgp90 II and rgp90 III) were performed. Combined, a total of 13 ponies were immunized with the rgp90 immunogen using our standard vac...
Kanai Y, van Rijn PA, Maris-Veldhuis M, Kaname Y, Athmaram TN, Roy P.African horse sickness (AHS) is an equine disease with a mortality of up to 90% for susceptible horses. The causative agent AHS virus (AHSV) is transmitted by species of Culicoides. AHSV serogroup within the genus Orbivirus of the Reoviridae family consists of nine serotypes that show no or very limited cross-neutralization. Of the seven structural proteins (VP1-VP7) of AHSV, VP2 is the serotype specific protein, and the major target for neutralizing antibodies. In this report, recombinant VP2 proteins of all nine serotypes were expressed individually by the baculovirus expression system and t...
Olomski F, Fettelschoss V, Jonsdottir S, Birkmann K, Thoms F, Marti E, Bachmann MF, Kündig TM, Fettelschoss-Gabriel A.Insect bite hypersensitivity (IBH) is the most common seasonal pruritic allergic dermatitis of horses occurring upon insect bites. In recent years, a major role for IL-31 in allergic pruritus of humans, monkeys, dogs, and mice was acknowledged. Here, we investigate the role of IL-31 in IBH of horses and developed a therapeutic vaccine against equine IL-31 (eIL-31). IL-31 levels were quantified in allergen-stimulated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and skin punch biopsies of IBH lesions and healthy skin from IBH-affected and healthy horses. The vaccine consisted of eIL-31 covalently ...
Barrandeguy M, Parreño V, Lagos Mármol M, Pont Lezica F, Rivas C, Valle C, Fernandez F.Many countries have reported rotavirus diarrhoea in foals. In Argentina it causes important economic losses to the horse industry. In this work we present the results obtained using an experimental vaccine in a farm with enzootic infection of rotavirus. A hundred mares were vaccinated 60 and 30 days before foaling with inactivated rotavirus SA11 (G3P2), H2 (G3P12), Lincoln (G6P1), with aluminum hydroxide as adjuvant; 65 mares were included in the unvaccinated, control group. To evaluate the vaccine, morbidity, duration of the diarrhoea and rotavirus shedding were recorded. Antibody levels were...
Tagmyer TL, Craigo JK, Cook SJ, Even DL, Issel CJ, Montelaro RC.A highly effective attenuated equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) vaccine (EIAV(D9)) capable of protecting 100% of horses from disease induced by a homologous Env challenge strain (EIAV(PV)) was recently tested in ponies to determine the level of protection against divergent Env challenge strains (J. K. Craigo, B. S. Zhang, S. Barnes, T. L. Tagmyer, S. J. Cook, C. J. Issel, and R. C. Montelaro, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104:15105-15110, 2007). An inverse correlation between challenge strain Env variation and vaccine protection from disease was observed. Given the striking differences in pro...
Hammond SA, Raabe ML, Issel CJ, Montelaro RC.We previously demonstrated in trials of a variety of experimental vaccines to equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) a remarkable spectrum of efficacy ranging from sterilizing protection to severe enhancement of virus replication and disease, depending on the immunization strategy used. This range of vaccine efficacy observed in vivo offers a unique opportunity for evaluating potential in vitro immune correlates of protection and enhancement. We describe here a comprehensive analysis and comparison of EIAV envelope-specific antibody responses elicited by attenuated, inactivated whole virus and ...
Struff WG, Sprotte G.Mammals supply their newborn before birth, at birth or shortly after birth with antibodies, immunocytes and humoral constituents. This "borrowed immunity" is a form of passive immunization to protect the newborn against environmental pathogens until it establishes its own pathogen recognition and disposal systems. In cows, goats, horses and some other animal species, most immunoglobulins are obtained from the colostrum, the first milk after birth, via the gut but in humans the majority of immunoglobulins, and those of the IgG-class in particular, are acquired from the mother by placental trans...
Kacskovics I.Many of the receptors for the Fc domain of immunoglobulins in cattle, sheep, pigs and horses have been cloned and characterized recently. This review summarises recent developments and relates them to the current understanding of the primary structure, cellular specificity and binding properties of Fc receptors (FcRs). Although there is an obvious overall similarity to their human and mouse counterparts, some Fc receptors in domestic animals are unusual, perhaps most notably the bovine Fcgamma2R, which although related to other mammalian FcgammaRs, belongs to a novel gene family and the porcin...
Cauchard S, Bermúdez-Humarán LG, Blugeon S, Laugier C, Langella P, Cauchard J.Rhodococcus equi causes severe pneumonia in foals and has recently gained attention as a significant opportunistic pathogen in immunocompromised humans. However, no effective vaccine to prevent rhodococcosis is currently available. In this study, we have engineered the food-grade bacterium Lactococcus lactis to secrete the virulence-associated protein A from R. equi (LL-VapA). The immunogenic potential of LL-VapA strain was then evaluated after either intragastric or intranasal immunization in mice either alone or in combination with LL-Lep, a recombinant strain of L. lactis secreting biologic...
Powell DG, Dwyer RM, Traub-Dargatz JL, Fulker RH, Whalen JW, Srinivasappa J, Acree WM, Chu HJ.To determine safety, immunogenicity, and efficacy of an inactivated equine rotavirus vaccine. Methods: Prospective randomized controlled trial. Methods: 316 pregnant Thoroughbred mares during the first year of the study and 311 during the second year. Methods: During the first year, mares received 3 doses of vaccine or placebo, IM, at 8, 9, and 10 months of gestation. Serum neutralizing antibody titers were measured before vaccination and 1 and 35 days after foaling. Antibody titers were measured in foals 1, 7, 35, 60, 90, and 120 days after birth. During the second year, mares that had been v...
Rodriguez L, Reedy S, Nogales A, Murcia PR, Chambers TM, Martinez-Sobrido L.H3N8 equine influenza virus (EIV) is an important and significant respiratory pathogen of horses. EIV is enzootic in Europe and North America, mainly due to the suboptimal efficacy of current vaccines. We describe, for the first time, the generation of a temperature sensitive (ts) H3N8 EIV live-attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) using reverse-genetics approaches. Our EIV LAIV was attenuated (att) in vivo and able to induce, upon a single intranasal administration, protection against H3N8 EIV wild-type (WT) challenge in both a mouse model and the natural host, the horse. Notably, since our EIV...
Hooper-McGrevy KE, Wilkie BN, Prescott JF.The purpose of this study was to determine whether foals immunized orally from 2 days of age with virulent Rhodococcus equi developed a protective pulmonary immune response and to characterise the antibody response of the immunized foals to the virulence-associated proteins (Vaps) of the bacterium. Two groups of foals were used. One (n=4) was given live R. equi ATCC 33701 orally at 2, 7, and 14 days of age. The second group comprised three non-immunized foals age-matched to the vaccinates. At 3 weeks of age, 1 week after the final immunization, both groups were challenged intrabronchially with...
Madigan JE, Hietala S, Muller N.A 2-year field study was performed to determine the capability of increasing Rhodococcus equi specific antibody in foals via plasma transfusion or mare vaccination, to determine the kinetics of R. equi (ELISA) antibody decay and to assess the protective effects of these procedures in foals on a farm endemic for R. equi. Plasma donors were vaccinated with a killed R. equi bacterin and produced high levels of anti-R. equi antibodies, which were harvested by plasmapheresis. In Experiment 1, 68 foals were given 1 litre of hyperimmune plasma intravenously (i.v.) between 1-60 days of age. Foal plasm...
León G, Herrera M, Vargas M, Arguedas M, Sánchez A, Segura Á, Gómez A, Solano G, Corrales-Aguilar E, Risner K, Narayanan A, Bailey C, Villalta M....In the current global emergency due to SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, passive immunotherapy emerges as a promising treatment for COVID-19. Among animal-derived products, equine formulations are still the cornerstone therapy for treating envenomations due to animal bites and stings. Therefore, drawing upon decades of experience in manufacturing snake antivenom, we developed and preclinically evaluated two anti-SARS-CoV-2 polyclonal equine formulations as potential alternative therapy for COVID-19. We immunized two groups of horses with either S1 (anti-S1) or a mixture of S1, N, and SEM mosaic (anti-Mix) ...
Minke JM, Toulemonde CE, Coupier H, Guigal PM, Dinic S, Sindle T, Jessett D, Black L, Bublot M, Pardo MC, Audonnet JC.To determine onset and duration of immunity provided by a 2- or 3-dose series of a new canarypox-vectored recombinant vaccine for equine influenza virus (rCP-EIV vaccine) expressing the hemagglutinin genes of influenza H3N8 virus strains A/eq/Kentucky/94 and A/eq/Newmarket/2/93 in ponies. Methods: Forty-nine 1- to 3-year-old male Welsh Mountain Ponies that were seronegative for equine influenza virus. Methods: Vaccinated and control ponies were challenged with aerosolized influenza virus A/eq/Sussex/89 (H3N8), representative of the Eurasian lineage of circulating influenza viruses. In trial 1,...
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...
Najarian JS, Simmons RL, Condie RM, Thompson EJ, Fryd DS, Howard RJ, Matas AJ, Sutherland DE, Ferguson RM, Schmidtke JR.Antibody of the IgGab type can be isolated from horses immunized with cultured human lymphoblasts plus complete Freund's adjuvant. The essential steps for the production of a safe, potent anti-human lymphoblast globulin (ALG) are: A) the use of early bleedings after immunization to reduce the titer of antibodies which react with red blood cells and platelets; B) careful absorption with human red blood cell stroma and platelets; C) stabilization with non-crystalline silica dioxide; D) chromatography through QAE sephadex to remove pyrogens, microaggregates and possible inhibitors of ALG activity...
Edlund Toulemonde C, Daly J, Sindle T, Guigal PM, Audonnet JC, Minke JM.Fifteen influenza-naive Welsh mountain ponies were randomly assigned to three groups of five. A single dose of a recombinant ALVAC vaccine was administered intramuscularly to five of the ponies, two doses, administered five weeks apart, were administered to five, and the other five served as unvaccinated, challenge controls. Two weeks after the completion of the vaccination programme, the ponies were all challenged by exposure to an aerosol of influenza virus A/eq/Newmarket/5/03. Their clinical signs were scored daily for 14 days according to a standardised scoring protocol, and nasal swabs we...
Chambers TM, Holland RE, Tudor LR, Townsend HG, Cook A, Bogdan J, Lunn DP, Hussey S, Whitaker-Dowling P, Youngner JS, Sebring RW, Penner SJ....Flu Avert IN vaccine is a new, live attenuated virus vaccine for equine influenza. We tested this vaccine in vivo to ascertain 1) its safety and stability when subjected to serial horse to horse passage, 2) whether it spread spontaneously from horse to horse and 3) its ability to protect against heterologous equine influenza challenge viruses of epidemiological relevance. For the stability study, the vaccine was administered to 5 ponies. Nasal swabs were collected and pooled fluids administered directly to 4 successive groups of naïve ponies by intranasal inoculation. Viruses isolated from th...
Hall RA, Khromykh AA.West Nile virus (WNV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus that is emerging as a global pathogen. In the last decade, virulent strains of the virus have been associated with significant outbreaks of human and animal disease in Europe, the Middle East and North America. Efforts to develop human and veterinary vaccines have taken both traditional and novel approaches. A formalin-inactivated whole virus vaccine has been approved for use in horses. DNA vaccines coding for the structural WNV proteins have also been assessed for veterinary use and have been found to be protective in mice, horses and birds...
Rutkowska DA, Mokoena NB, Tsekoa TL, Dibakwane VS, O'Kennedy MM.African horse sickness (AHS) is a severe arthropod-borne viral disease of equids, with a mortality rate of up to 95% in susceptible naïve horses. Due to safety concerns with the current live, attenuated AHS vaccine, alternate safe and effective vaccination strategies such as virus-like particles (VLPs) are being investigated. Transient plant-based expression systems are a rapid and highly scalable means of producing such African horse sickness virus (AHSV) VLPs for vaccine purposes. Results: In this study, we demonstrated that transient co-expression of the four AHSV capsid proteins in agroin...
Defang GN, Khetawat D, Broder CC, Quinnan GV.The emergence of Hendra Virus (HeV) and Nipah Virus (NiV) which can cause fatal infections in both animals and humans has triggered a search for an effective vaccine. Here, we have explored the potential for generating an effective humoral immune response to these zoonotic pathogens using an alphavirus-based vaccine platform. Groups of mice were immunized with Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus replicon particles (VRPs) encoding the attachment or fusion glycoproteins of either HeV or NiV. We demonstrate the induction of highly potent cross-reactive neutralizing antibodies to both viruses usi...
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...
Yolanda H, Krajaejun T.The fungus-like microorganism causes pythiosis, a life-threatening infectious disease increasingly reported worldwide. Antimicrobial drugs are ineffective. Radical surgery is an essential treatment. Pythiosis can resume post-surgically. Immunotherapy using antigens (PIA) has emerged as an alternative treatment. This review aims at providing up-to-date information of the immunotherapeutic PIA, with the focus on its history, preparation, clinical application, outcome, mechanism, and recent advances, in order to promote the proper use and future development of this treatment modality. crude ex...
Martínez-Torrecuadrada JL, Díaz-Laviada M, Roy P, Sánchez C, Vela C, Sánchez-Vizcaíno JM, Casal JI.African horsesickness virus serotype 4 (AHSV-4) outer capsid protein VP2, or VP2 and VP5 plus inner capsid protein VP7, derived from single or dual recombinant baculovirus expression vectors were used in different combinations to immunize horses. When the proteins were purified by affinity chromatography, the combination of all three proteins induced low levels of neutralizing antibodies and conferred protection against virulent virus challenge. However, purified VP2 or VP2 and VP5 in the absence of VP7 failed to induce neutralizing antibodies and protection. Immunization with non-purified pro...
