Intra-serotype SAT2 chimeric foot-and-mouth disease vaccine protects cattle against FMDV challenge

Abstract

The genetic diversity of the three Southern African Territories (SAT) types of foot-and-mouth diseasevirus (FMDV) reflects high antigenic variation, and indications are that vaccines targeting each SAT-specific topotype may be needed. This has serious implications for control of FMD using vaccines as wellas the choice of strains to include in regional antigen banks. Here, we investigated an intra-serotypechimeric virus, vSAT2ZIM14-SAT2, which was engineered by replacing the surface-exposed capsid-codingregion (1B-1D/2A) of a SAT2 genome-length clone, pSAT2, with that of the field isolate, SAT2/ZIM/14/90.The chimeric FMDV produced by this technique was viable, grew to high titres and stably maintained the1B-1D/2A sequence upon passage. Chemically inactivated, oil adjuvanted vaccines of both the chimericand parental immunogens were used to vaccinate cattle. The serological response to vaccination showedthe production of strong neutralizing antibody titres that correlated with protection against homolo-gous FMDV challenge. We also predicted a good likelihood that cattle vaccinated with an intra-serotypechimeric vaccine would be protected against challenge with viruses that caused recent outbreaks insouthern Africa. These results provide support that chimeric vaccines containing the external capsid offield isolates induce protective immune responses in FMD host species similar to the parental vaccine.