factors critical for successful vaccination against classical swine fever in endemic areas

9
Review Factors critical for successful vaccination against classical swine fever in endemic areas S. Suradhat a, * , S. Damrongwatanapokin b , R. Thanawongnuwech a a Faculty of Veterinary Science, Chulalongkorn University, Henri-Dunant Road, Bangkok 10330, Thailand b Virology section, The National Institute of Animal Health (NIAH), Department of Livestock Development, Bangkok 10900, Thailand Received 31 January 2006; received in revised form 28 August 2006; accepted 4 October 2006 Abstract Classical swine fever (CSF) or hog cholera, caused by the classical swine fever virus (CSFV), is one of the most important viral diseases that cause serious economic loss to the swine industry worldwide. During the past 5 years, several techniques for measuring porcine cell-mediated immunity (CMI) were applied, in conjunction with other conventional techniques, to study factors that influence the induction of CSFV-specific immunity. Information, obtained from a series of experiments, demonstrated cell-mediated immune responses in providing protective immunity against CSF infection. Although it has been confirmed that commercially available modified live CSF vaccines are able to induce complete protection in vaccinated pigs, several factors including maternal immunity, the age of primary vaccination, vaccination protocol and complications caused by other pathogens, can greatly affect the effectiveness of CSF vaccines in the field. # 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Classical swine fever; Vaccination; Immunity; Modified live vaccine Contents 1. Introduction ...................................................................... 2 2. Immunological mechanisms underlying vaccine-induced protective immunity ......................... 2 3. Factors critical for successful vaccination against classical swine fever in endemic areas ................. 4 3.1. The vaccines ................................................................. 5 3.2. The pigs .................................................................... 5 3.3. Complications by other pathogens .................................................. 6 4. Final remark ...................................................................... 7 Acknowledgement .................................................................. 7 References ....................................................................... 7 www.elsevier.com/locate/vetmic Veterinary Microbiology 119 (2007) 1–9 * Corresponding author at: Faculty of Veterinary Science, Chulalongkorn University, Henri-Dunant Rd., Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand. Tel.: +66 2 218 9583; fax: +66 2 251 1656. E-mail address: [email protected] (S. Suradhat). 0378-1135/$ – see front matter # 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.vetmic.2006.10.003

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Review

Factors critical for successful vaccination against classical

swine fever in endemic areas

S. Suradhat a,*, S. Damrongwatanapokin b, R. Thanawongnuwech a

a Faculty of Veterinary Science, Chulalongkorn University, Henri-Dunant Road, Bangkok 10330, Thailandb Virology section, The National Institute of Animal Health (NIAH), Department of Livestock Development, Bangkok 10900, Thailand

Received 31 January 2006; received in revised form 28 August 2006; accepted 4 October 2006

www.elsevier.com/locate/vetmic

Veterinary Microbiology 119 (2007) 1–9

Abstract

Classical swine fever (CSF) or hog cholera, caused by the classical swine fever virus (CSFV), is one of the most important

viral diseases that cause serious economic loss to the swine industry worldwide. During the past 5 years, several techniques for

measuring porcine cell-mediated immunity (CMI) were applied, in conjunction with other conventional techniques, to study

factors that influence the induction of CSFV-specific immunity. Information, obtained from a series of experiments,

demonstrated cell-mediated immune responses in providing protective immunity against CSF infection. Although it has been

confirmed that commercially available modified live CSF vaccines are able to induce complete protection in vaccinated pigs,

several factors including maternal immunity, the age of primary vaccination, vaccination protocol and complications caused by

other pathogens, can greatly affect the effectiveness of CSF vaccines in the field.

# 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Classical swine fever; Vaccination; Immunity; Modified live vaccine

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

2. Immunological mechanisms underlying vaccine-induced protective immunity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

3. Factors critical for successful vaccination against classical swine fever in endemic areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

3.1. The vaccines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3.2. The pigs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3.3. Complications by other pathogens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

4. Final remark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Acknowledgement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

* Corresponding author at: Faculty of Veterinary Science, Chulalongkorn University, Henri-Dunant Rd., Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand.

Tel.: +66 2 218 9583; fax: +66 2 251 1656.

E-mail address: [email protected] (S. Suradhat).

0378-1135/$ – see front matter # 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1016/j.vetmic.2006.10.003

S. Suradhat et al. / Veterinary Microbiology 119 (2007) 1–92

1. Introduction

Classical swine fever (CSF), formerly known as

hog cholera, is one of the major diseases, causing

serious economic loss to the swine industry worldwide

(Moennig, 2000). The disease is caused by a Pestivirus

named classical swine fever virus (CSFV), an

enveloped, single-stranded RNA virus (Moennig,

2000). Classical swine fever virus can be classified

genetically into three genogroups (Paton et al., 2000).

All the genogroups have been isolated in Thailand,

with the major prevalence being genogroups 1 and 3

(Parchariyanon et al., 2000). However, during the last

decade, there has been an increased incidence of

subacute and chronic CSF outbreaks caused by the

moderately virulent CSFV, genogroup 2.2. The CSFV

genogroup 2.2 is closely related to the European

CSFVand was first isolated in Thailand in 1996. Since

then, this genogroup has contributed to over 50% of

the isolates during the 1990s (Parchariyanon et al.,

1999). This newly emerged genogroup has become the

major strain circulated in the area, causing milder

clinical symptoms ranging from subacute to chronic

forms of CSF (Parchariyanon et al., 1999; Damrong-

watanapokin et al., 2002).

In the highly endemic areas routine vaccination

against CSF is the most common means used for

prevention and control. However, the increased

incidence of subacute CSF during the 1990s in

Thailand raised several concerns whether the vaccines

and the vaccination programs were still effective.

Since the year 2000, our group has carried out a

research program, conducting several challenge

studies to assess the efficacy of commercially

available CSF vaccines and to evaluate the factors

critical for successful vaccination against CSF. In this

article, the immunological mechanisms involved in

vaccine-induced disease protection and factors related

to successful vaccination against CSF will be further

discussed.

2. Immunological mechanisms underlying

vaccine-induced protective immunity

Most of the information regarding the immunolo-

gical mechanisms involved in protection against

CSFV infection were derived from an experiment

using the modified live, Chinese (C) strain vaccine.

The C strain vaccine is generally accepted to be very

safe in pigs of all age groups, providing complete

protection, i.e. sterile immunity in vaccinated pigs.

The C strain vaccine usually induces detectable

neutralizing antibodies in vaccinated pigs 2–3 weeks

following primary vaccination (Precausta et al., 1983;

Terpstra et al., 1990). However, pigs vaccinated with

the C-strain vaccine appear to be completely protected

against virulent CSFV challenge as early as 1 week

following vaccination (reviewed in Van Oirschot,

2003). It should be noted that, in some cases, vaccine-

induced protection was achieved in the absence of

neutralizing antibodies at the time of challenge

(Launais et al., 1978; Rumenapf et al., 1991). These

findings implicate the vital role of cell-mediated

immunity (CMI) in viral protection during the early

phases of immunity.

Cell-mediated immunity (CMI) is known to have

both an effector and a regulatory role on the immune

system and is believed to be essential for immunity

against intracellular pathogens, including viruses

(Janeway et al., 1999). Previous information regarding

the role of CMI in vaccine induced, viral protection in

pigs has been very limited, due to the lack of reagents

and the impracticality of the conventional techniques

for the detection of porcine CMI. Nevertheless, antigen-

specific lymphoproliferative activity was demonstrated

in peripheral blood lymphocytes from vaccinated pigs

that were protected against the CSFV challenge

(Remond et al., 1981). The existence of CSF-cytotoxic

T lymphocytes (CTL) in the peripheral blood mono-

nuclear cells (PBMC), from immunized pigs, has been

demonstrated (Pauly et al., 1995; Armengol et al., 2002;

Piriou et al., 2003). An alternative technique for

assessing CMI is to measure the production of cytokines

that are known to influence or directly relate to cellular

immunity. Among these cytokines, the role of inter-

feron-gamma (IFN-g) for the induction of CMI has

been well characterized. IFN-g has several immunor-

egulatory effects that are involved in the induction of

anti-viral immunity, including the activation of CTL,

natural killer (NK) cells and phagocytes (Janeway et al.,

1999). The measurement of viral-specific IFN-g

production is believed to be a direct reflection of

viral-specific lymphocyte activities (Mateu de Antonio

et al., 1998; Zuckermann et al., 1998). Furthermore,

viral-specific IFN-g production remains detectable for

S. Suradhat et al. / Veterinary Microbiology 119 (2007) 1–9 3

a long period of time, whereas lymphocyte proliferation

tends to diminish due to the decreased ability of T cells

to produce IL-2 (Mateu de Antonio et al., 1998).

Previously, an ELISPOT assay for measuring porcine

IFN-g producing cells was established and used for

determining the number of pseudorabies virus (PRV)-

specific, IFN-g producing cells. Several reports have

shown that the number of viral-specific IFN-g

producing cells is a good indicator of anti-viral

immunity (Mateu de Antonio et al., 1998; Zuckermann

et al., 1998, 1999). Subsequently, an ELISPOTassay for

determining CSFV-specific IFN-g production was

established and has been used for the assessment of

the CSFV-specific cellular immunity by several

research groups (Suradhat et al., 2001; Armengol

et al., 2002; Rau et al., 2006). In our experience, CSFV-

specific IFN-g secreting cells could be detected in the

PBMC from pigs vaccinated with the lapinized C strain

vaccine, as early as 6 days, and lasted for up to 140 days,

following vaccination (Suradhat et al., 2001). Further-

more, disease protection could be demonstrated in pigs

carrying high numbers of CSFV-specific IFN-g cells at

the time of challenge, while neutralizing antibodies

were still undetectable (Suradhat et al., 2001; Suradhat

and Damrongwatanapokin, 2003). These findings

highlight the role of vaccine-induced cellular immunity

in viral protection during the early phases of immunity.

In addition, the role of CMI in protection against CSFV

infection was indicated even in the presence of CSFV-

specific neutralizing antibodies. When the pigs were

challenged 140 days after a single vaccination, good

correlation occurred between the level of protection and

the level of IFN-g production, more than the antibody

titer (Suradhat et al., 2001). Despite the protective role

of the cellular immune response at the time of

challenge, the role of CSFV-specific antibody following

such challenge should not be excluded, since there was

a significant increase in the SN titers of the vaccinated

pigs, but not the control unvaccinated pigs, following

the challenge (Suradhat and Damrongwatanapokin,

2003; Suradhat et al., 2001). Generally, CSFVinfection

causes severe B-cell depletion (Susa et al., 1992),

possibly by the induction of massive lymphocyte

apoptosis (Summerfield et al., 1998). Protected

pigs were probably able to control the establishment

of viral infection, and therefore, B cell function was

not affected. The rapid anamnestic antibody response

following the CSFV challenge was certainly

advantageous in reducing viral spreading in the

protected animals.

Although an ELISPOT assay can be used to

monitor overall IFN-g production in response to

CSFV, the assay cannot differentiate the lymphocyte

subpopulation responsible for cytokine production.

Thus, it was not clear which cellular subpopulation

(helper T cell; Th, CTL, etc.) was responsible for the

cytokine production observed in the previous ELI-

SPOT study. This limitation has been overcome by the

application of flow cytometry to analyze the cellular

markers and the intracellular cytokine production,

simultaneously. Recent studies revealed that PBMC

from pigs vaccinated with the C-strain vaccine

produced IFN-g in response to CSFV and that the

double-positive (DP), CD4+CD8+ population was the

major IFN-g producer (Suradhat et al., 2005). This

finding is in agreement with previous reports

demonstrating that DP cells, which are the memory

Th population, can produce high levels of IFN-g in

response to a recall antigen or polyclonal T cell

activator (Rodriguez-Carreno et al., 2002; Saalmuller

et al., 2002). The finding also implies that the IFN-g

producing cells detected by ELISPOT assay, following

immunization with the C strain vaccine in the previous

study, were indeed reflecting Th activity.

It should also be noted that the number of IFN-g

producing cells, following vaccination, was always

lower than that observed following CSFV challenge

(Suradhat et al., 2005, 2006). This finding is consistent

with an other report that demonstrated that immuniza-

tion with a modified live vaccine induces a lower level

of cell-mediated response than the actual viral infection

(Piriou et al., 2003). Interestingly, the CD4�CD8+

population was found to be the major IFN-g producer,

while there were a significantly less number of IFN-g

producing DP cells in the PBMC of the vaccinated pigs

during the first week following CSFV challenge

(Suradhat et al., 2005). As it has previously been

suggested, porcine memory Th population preferen-

tially homes to the secondary lymphoid organs

(Zuckermann, 1999), thus, the low number of

antigen-specific DP cells may simply reflect the

difference in tissue homing preference among the

lymphocyte subpopulations, during the effector phase

of the immune response. The increased CD8+ activity in

vaccinated pigs following challenge was possibly

vaccine-induced anamnestic response of the CD8+

S. Suradhat et al. / Veterinary Microbiology 119 (2007) 1–94

population. Alternatively, it is also possible that rapid

IFN-g production by CSFV-specific memory Th,

following the challenge, might contribute to the

generation of CTL (Piriou et al., 2003). Nevertheless,

the data suggests that activation of memory CSFV-

specific Th cells and priming of a viral specific

CD4�CD8+ population, possibly CTL, occurred in the

pigs vaccinated with the C strainvaccine. These cellular

activities are likely be one of the protective immune

mechanisms induced by the C strain vaccine, particu-

larly during an early phase of immunity.

When vaccinated pigs were challenged at a later

stage after vaccination, there seemed to be a good

correlation between the presence of neutralizing

antibodies at the time of challenge and viral protection

(Terpstra and Wensvoort, 1988; Suradhat et al., 2001).

It is generally accepted that vaccinated pigs with

active neutralizing antibody titers of �32 were

considered to be protective (Terpstra and Wensvoort,

1988). It should be noted that this assumption was

obtained from experiments using a modified live

vaccine. As the vaccine antigens are able to enter both

the endogenous and exogenous antigen presentation

pathway, this type of vaccine should efficiently

activate both humoral (neutralizing antibody) and

cell-mediated immunity (CTL). In general, active

CSFV-specific antibody production following vacci-

nation, with the C strain vaccine, correlated well with

the levels of IFN-g production (Suradhat et al., 2001).

Therefore, routine monitoring of SN titers, i.e.

seroprofile, can still be used for assessing the

effectiveness of a CSF vaccine program in the field.

In fact, we strongly recommend routine monitoring of

herd immunity to CSFV, in farms situated in a highly

endemic areas.

As suggested above, neutralizing antibodies also

contribute to viral protection, through the reduction of

spreading and shedding of the infectious virions. The

evidence that neutralizing antibodies, alone, could

provide protection has also been reported. Piglets with

exceptionally high levels of maternal derived neu-

tralizing antibodies (>512) are passively protected

against the CSFV challenge (Parchariyanon et al.,

1994). Furthermore, the E2 subunit vaccine, which

mainly activated the CSFV-specific Th population and

the production of neutralizing antibodies, confer

clinical protection against the CSFV challenge (de

Smit et al., 2001; Uttenthal et al., 2001; Dewulf et al.,

2002). However, it should be noted that the informa-

tion regarding the protective values of the E2 subunit

vaccines were rather inconsistent (reviewed in Van

Oirschot, 2003). As viral protection induced by the E2

subunit vaccine is likely to rely on the ability to induce

CSFV-specific neutralizing antibodies (Van Oirschot,

2003), it may take a longer time (at least 2–3 weeks)

following vaccination or more than one vaccination to

obtain complete viral protection. A recent study in

Thailand has shown that at least two vaccinations were

required to induce clinical protection in pigs carrying a

low level of maternal derived antibodies (MDA), at the

time of vaccination. Nevertheless, most of the

protected pigs still developed fever, leucopenia, and

viraemia following the viral challenge (Damrongwa-

tanapokin et al., 2006). The efficacy of the E2 subunit

vaccine for prevention of horizontal and vertical viral

transmission has also been previously placed in doubt

(Dewulf et al., 2002, 2005).

Findings on the efficacy of the E2 subunit vaccine

suggest that nature of an antigen presented to the

immune system (i.e. endogenously or exogenously

produced form) can significantly affect the ability of

the vaccines to induce protective immunity against

CSFV. Generally, exogenous protein antigen does not

efficiently activate CTL activity (Janeway et al.,

1999). It should be noted that CSFV is cell-associated

and a non-cytopathic virus. Replication is restricted in

the cytoplasm of the cell and the virus can spread

directly from the infected cell to adjacent cells (Van

Oirschot, 1999). Thus, inefficient priming of viral-

specific CTL could be one of the explanations for

incomplete viral protection induced by the subunit

vaccine. Interestingly, plasmid encoding E2 protein of

CSFV conferred complete protection in the vacci-

nated-challenged pigs, even in the absence of

neutralizing antibodies at the time of challenge

(Ganges et al., 2005). Together, these findings

emphasize the vital role of cell-mediated immunity

(i.e. viral specific CTL activity) for controlling viral

spreading in the challenged animals.

3. Factors critical for successful vaccinationagainst classical swine fever in endemic areas

During the past years, we have conducted several

CSF vaccine trials and challenge experiments to

S. Suradhat et al. / Veterinary Microbiology 119 (2007) 1–9 5

investigate the factors critical for the induction of

protective immunity against CSFV by modified live

CSF vaccines. Some of the experiments were

performed in order to verify common beliefs among

swine practitioners, or to evaluate the off-labeled

vaccine usage that was once widely practiced in the

country. Several factors critical for a successful CSF

vaccination program will be discussed further as

follows.

3.1. The vaccines

The C strain, modified live vaccine (MLV) has been

regarded as one of the most effective CSF vaccines that

provides complete clinical and virological protection,

i.e. sterile immunity, within a week of vaccination

(Suradhat et al., 2001; Van Oirschot, 2003). It has been

suggested that the C strain CSF-MLV is the vaccine of

choice for an emergency vaccination protocol (Van

Oirschot, 2003). Several strains of commercial CSF-

MLV, mostly derived from genogroup 1, are available in

the market. In our experience, a single vaccination of

the CSF-MLV, including C strain (both lapinized and

tissue culture derived) and GPE- strains, induced

complete protection against CSFV infection as early

as 6 days after vaccination. It should be noted that this

protective effect was observed on the condition that the

pigs had low levels of MDA (�32) at the time of

vaccination (Suradhat et al., 2001; Suradhat and

Damrongwatanapokin, 2003).

Several genogroups of CSFV have recently been

isolated in Thailand (Parchariyanon et al., 2001).

Although it is well accepted that CSF-MLV can

effectively induce complete protection against all of

the CSFV strains, increased prevalence of the newly

emerged genogroups during the last decade has raised

concerns whether the available vaccines can induce

complete protection to every CSFV genogroup found

in Thailand. Our data, together with other reports,

confirm that CSF-MLV can induce complete protec-

tion against all tested CSFV genogroups, including the

newly emerged genogroups 2 and 3 (Parchariyanon

et al., 2001; Suradhat and Damrongwatanapokin,

2003). Thus, the increased prevalence of new

genogroups is unlikely to be due to any inability of

inducing heterotypic protection by CSF-MLV.

Although, CSF-MLV could effectively induce

protective immunity in pigs, certain conditions are

required to achieve complete viral protection. Off-

labeled vaccine usage, as for example, vaccination of

the CSF vaccine combined in the same injection with

other vaccines should be systemically tested prior to

implementation. In one of our studies, combining the

C-strain vaccine and a live gE-deleted, PRV vaccine

resulted in a significant reduction in cellular response

against CSFV, while there were no differences in the

levels of SN antibody. Although the pigs vaccinated

with the combined vaccine were clinically protected

against CSFV challenge, there were clearly more fever

days and pathological changes in this group, when

compared to those from the pigs vaccinated with the

CSF vaccine alone (Suradhat et al., 2001).

Oral CSF-MLV vaccination was introduced by the

European countries for the purpose of controlling CSF

in wild boars (Van Oirschot, 2003). To obtain

complete protection, the oral CSF vaccine formulation

requires the addition of a vaccine stabilizer and a

higher dose of the MLV virus (Kaden et al., 2000). In

addition, more challenge studies will be needed to

evaluate the effectiveness of this vaccine regimen in

domestic pigs. Vaccine protocols using a commer-

cially available CSF vaccine for oral immunization of

domestic pigs are not, at the moment, recommended.

3.2. The pigs

In our experience, interference by maternal derived

antibodies (MDA) is the most common factor

affecting the induction of protective immunity against

CSFV in the field. Piglets are born agammaglobuli-

naemia and acquire passive immunity by colostral

intake. The levels of CSFV-specific MDA of the

suckling pigs correlate well with the levels of serum

neutralizing (SN) titer of the sows. Without any

exposure to CSFV, MDA gradually declines with a

half-life of approximately 2 weeks (Coggins, 1964).

Generally, it is well accepted that optimal protection

can be achieved by vaccination of piglets carrying

MDA titers of �32 (Suvintrakorn et al., 1993;

Parchariyanon et al., 1994). This can be problematic

in a highly endemic area, where all the pigs are

routinely vaccinated and viral circulation in the farm

can be high. Natural CSFV exposure of the vaccinated

sows leads to anamnestic antibody responses that are

passed on to the piglets without any observed clinical

signs. Although it has been reported that high levels of

S. Suradhat et al. / Veterinary Microbiology 119 (2007) 1–96

MDA can confer some degree of protection, the MDA

titers of more than 256 were required to obtain

complete clinical protection in the piglets (Parchar-

iyanon et al., 1994). Furthermore, it would take a

longer time for the MDA, at this level, to decline to the

level that does not interfere with CSF vaccine efficacy,

i.e. longer window of susceptibility. Accumulating

data indicates that MDA of more than 32 significantly

affects the induction of protective immunity by CSF-

MLV, and this leads to vaccine failure (Suvintrakorn

et al., 1993; Parchariyanon et al., 1994; Suradhat and

Damrongwatanapokin, 2003). In some experiments,

piglets vaccinated in the presence of high MDA titers

never showed seroconversion to the subsequent CSFV

exposure (Parchariyanon et al., 1994; Suradhat and

Damrongwatanapokin, 2003). Interestingly, in the

challenge study using a moderately virulent CSFV

(genogroup 2.2), all challenged pigs survived the

challenge through to the end of the experiment.

However, CSFV could be isolated from the sera of

unvaccinated pigs and 50% of the pigs, vaccinated

while having high levels of MDA. With an increase in

the prevalence of subacute and chronic CSF during the

past years, infected/unprotected pigs may survive for a

long period of time without any obvious clinical signs

of CSF. This clinical situation will certainly compli-

cate any disease control program, as the infected pigs

become an undetected source of infection on the farm.

Again, these findings highlight the significance of

routine serosurveillance and the use of other

diagnostic tools for monitoring the herd immune

status and plans for immunoprophylaxis.

Apart from MDA, the influence of age at the time of

primary vaccination was also investigated. Piglets at

the age range of 3–5 weeks, with comparable levels of

MDA titers (<32), were vaccinated twice at a 2 weeks

interval with the lapinized C strain vaccine. Levels of

CSFV-specific, cellular and antibody responses, were

determined every 2 weeks up to 10 weeks post-

vaccination. The result indicated that piglets immu-

nized at 5 weeks old developed a greater number of

CSFV-specific, IFN-g producing cells in the PBMC

and higher CSFV-specific, SN titers than pigs

immunized at 3 weeks old (Suradhat and Damrong-

watanapokin, 2002). Although CSFV challenge was

not performed in this study, the results clearly

demonstrated that younger pigs are not as immuno-

competent as the older ones. The finding is in

accordance with previous knowledge that the porcine

immune system is fully matured at the age of 4 weeks

(Povey and Carman, 1997). Thus, when emergency

vaccination protocol is implemented in very young

piglets, during an outbreak, a booster vaccination may

be required to achieve complete protection. Further-

more, it is highly recommended that emergency

vaccination protocol should be removed as soon as the

outbreak is over.

3.3. Complications by other pathogens

As shown through our series of experiments, the

induction of protective immunity against CSFV

infection depends on several factors. Most of the

challenge studies were conducted in the isolation units

where disease complications by other pathogens were

minimized. The results and interpretations obtained

from these experiments may underestimate clinical

outcomes in the field, where pigs can be exposed to

several pathogens at the same time. Several pathogens,

mycotoxins and chemicals are known to negatively

modulate the immune system, and therefore, sig-

nificantly interfere with the effectiveness of any CSF

vaccination protocol. In our experience, co-infection

with PRV at the time of CSFV challenge resulted in

fatal CSFV infection of the vaccinated pigs, despite

successful immunization against CSFV, as determined

by the presence of CSFV-specific, IFN-g producing

cells and SN titers, prior to the CSFV challenge (S.

Suradhat, unpublished).

Since its emergence in the late 1980s, porcine

reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV)

has become one of the most economically important

pathogens of the swine industry (Meng, 2000). In

Thailand, the prevalence of PRRSV infection is

believed to be more than 80% (Thanawongnuwech

et al., 2004). Several lines of evidence suggest that

PRRSV can negatively modulate the immune system.

Our recent findings demonstrate that PRRSV induces

systemic production of a very potent immunosup-

pressive cytokine, interleukin-10 (IL-10), during an

early stage of infection (Suradhat and Thanawongnu-

wech, 2003). Furthermore, the presence of PRRSV in

the culture suppressed IFN-g production by the CSF-

MLV primed PBMC when stimulated with the recall

antigen; CSFV (Suradhat et al., 2003). In order to

explore the effect of PRRSV infection on the efficacy

S. Suradhat et al. / Veterinary Microbiology 119 (2007) 1–9 7

of CSF-MLV, we conducted the dual PRRSV-CSFV

challenge experiment. Seventeen days old pigs were

infected with a Thai PRRSV isolate a week before

vaccination with the lapinized C strain vaccine. Three

weeks after CSF vaccination, the pigs were challenged

with the virulent CSFV. The results demonstrated that

PRRSV infection significantly interfered with induc-

tion of CSFV-specific immunity which resulted in

vaccine failure (Suradhat et al., 2006). The finding is

in agreement with a previous report that PRRSV

infection suppresses active antibody responses to CSF

vaccination (Li and Yang, 2003). Interestingly, while

measuring the levels of CSFV-specific, IFN-g

production, we observed that the numbers of IL-10

producing cells by the PBMC from PRRSV infected

pigs were significantly increased during the first 14

days post-infection. The systemic IL-10 production,

occurred at the time of CSF vaccination, was likely to

interfere with CSF vaccine efficacy, and subsequently

led to vaccine failure. We postulated that the PRRSV-

induced, IL-10 production could result in the

inhibition of immune responses to other antigens, to

which they may be exposed during the same period of

PRRSV infection. In fact, the negative effects of

PRRSV infection on the efficacy of other porcine

vaccines have been previously reported by many

investigators (De Bruin et al., 2000; Thacker et al.,

2000). This finding implied that CSF vaccination

during the active stage of PRRSV infection should be

avoided. Taken together, the above findings emphasize

that the influence of other pathogens on the immune

system and/or interactions among the pathogens

should also be taken into consideration. Strict

biosecurity and routine monitoring of the herd

immune status will be crucial for preventing such

complications.

4. Final remark

During the past years, we have explored several

factors critical for successful CSF vaccination in the

field. Our results, together with previous reports,

confirm that CSF-MLV can effectively induce protec-

tive immunity against CSFV infection, when used

properly. In our opinion, CSF vaccine failure that is

observed in the field is primarily due to a lack of

understanding of the herd immune status, mechanisms

of immunological protection, viral pathogenesis, and

epidemiology. Sharing such information among veter-

inary researchers, swine practitioners and farmers,

together with a strengthening of the disease surveillance

program is necessary for a successful CSF preventive

and control program, which in our hope, will eventually

lead to the eradication of CSF in the region.

Acknowledgement

The authors wish to thank Drs. Ratree Platt, Terry

Heard, and Henry Too for helpful comments during

the manuscript preparation.

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