Previous work, in sheep vaccinated with emergency foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) vaccine, indicated the benefit of increasing the antigen payload in inhibiting local virus replication and consequently persistence following an indirect aerosol challenge with a virus homologous to the vaccine strain. The work presented here investigates this possibility further using cattle and a more severe semi-heterologous direct contact challenge. The quantitative dynamics of virus replication and excretion in both vaccinated and non-vaccinated cattle following challenge are examined. Two experiments were carried out each involving 20 vaccinated and 5 non-vaccinated cattle. An O1 Manisa vaccine (18 PD50) was used for the first, previously reported experiment [Cox SJ, Voyce C, Parida S, Reid SM, Hamblin PA, Paton DJ, et al. Protection against direct contact challenge following emergency FMD vaccination of cattle and the effect on virus excretion from the oropharynx. Vaccine 2005;23:1106–13]. The same vaccine was used for the second experiment described in this paper except the antigen payload was increased 10-fold per bovine dose, resulting in significantly higher FMD virus neutralising antibody titres prior to challenge. Twenty-one days post-vaccination the cattle received a 5-day direct contact challenge with FMD virus from five further non-vaccinated cattle infected 24 h earlier with O UKG 34/2001. All vaccinated cattle regardless of antigen payload were protected against clinical disease. Sub-clinical oropharyngeal infection was detected in animals from both experiments but the level of virus replication shortly after direct contact challenge was significantly reduced in vaccinated animals. Cattle immunised with the 10-fold antigen payload cleared the virus more readily and consequently at 28 days post-challenge fewer animals were persistently infected compared to the single strength vaccine. Following a severe challenge, the results from both experiments show that use of emergency vaccine can prevent or decrease local virus replication and thereby dramatically reduce the amount of virus released into the environment, particularly during the early post-exposure period. Additionally, increasing the antigen payload of the vaccine may reduce sub-clinical infection, leading to fewer persistently infected virus carrier animals.

Background: A polymorphism in exon 4 (C77G) of CD45 that alters CD45 splicing has been associated with autoimmune and infectious diseases in humans. Objective: To investigate the effect of C77G in hepatitis C virus (HCV) infected individuals and study the phenotype and function of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from healthy and hepatitis C infected C77G carriers. Results: C77G individuals showed an increased proportion of primed CD45RA and effector memory CD8 T cells and more rapid activation of the lymphocyte specific protein tyrosine kinase (Lck) following CD3 stimulation. Transgenic mice with CD45 expression mimicking that in human C77G variants had more activated/memory T cells, more rapid proliferative responses, and activation of Lck. Conclusions: Changes in CD45 isoform expression can alter immune function in human C77G variants and CD45 transgenic mice. The C77G allele may influence the outcome of HCV infection.

A total of 164 blood samples, collected from free-ranging red deer (Cervus elaphus), roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and fallow deer (Dama danw) in six German national parks (NP) between 2000 and 2002, were assayed for antibodies against nine viral disease agents. Antibodies were only detected against the a-herpesviruses; specifically, bovine herpesvirus-1 (BHV-1) (22 of 157,14%), cervid herpesvirus-1 (17 of 157, 10.8%), and caprine herpesvirus-1 (11 of 159, 6.9%). Titers ranged from 4 to 102. Most of the seropositive sera, and those with the highest antibody titers, were from red and roe deer in the Harz and Hochharz NP, which are connected and allow migration between the two. The distribution and specificity of antibodies detected in individual deer suggests that the three alpha-herpesviruses are circulating in these deer populations. No antibodies were detected against bovine viral diarrhea virus, epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus, bovine leukemia virus, bluetongue virus, foot-and-mouth disease virus, or sheep and goat poxvirus.

East Coast fever, caused by the tick-borne intracellular apicomplexan parasite Theileria parva, is a highly fatal lymphoproliferative disease of cattle. The pathogenic schizont-induced lymphocyte transformation is a unique cancer-like condition that is reversible with parasite removal. Schizont-infected cell-directed CD8(+) cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) constitute the dominant protective bovine immune response after a single exposure to infection. However, the schizont antigens targeted by T. parva-specific CTL are undefined. Here we show the identification of five candidate vaccine antigens that are the targets of MHC class I-restricted CD8(+) CTL from immune cattle. CD8(+) T cell responses to these antigens were boosted in T. parva-immune cattle resolving a challenge infection and, when used to immunize naive cattle, induced CTL responses that significantly correlated with survival from a lethal parasite challenge. These data provide a basis for developing a CTL-targeted anti-East Coast fever subunit vaccine. In addition, orthologs of these antigens may be vaccine targets for other apicomplexan parasites.