The serological response and fetal protection conferred by three bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) inactivated vaccines (vaccines A, B and C) were evaluated through immunization followed by challenge of pregnant ewes with Brazilian BVDV-1 and BVDV-2 field isolates. Moderate to low levels of anti-BVDV-1 neutralizing antibodies were detected in most animals (45/47) 30 days after the second vaccine administration (geometric mean titers [GMT] 124.7, 74.6 and 26.7 for vaccines A, B and C, respectively). In contrast, neutralizing activity to BVDV-2 was not detected in several vaccinated animals (12/47) and was significantly lower than to BVDV-1 in all three vaccine groups (GMT 19.1, 14.1 and 15.1). The antibody levels declined significantly by day 180, such that some animals from groups B (1/19) and C (8/14) had no detectable neutralizing activity against BVDV-1; and several animals from groups A (7/14), B (13/19) and C (13/14) did not react against BVDV-2. At this time, the mean antibody titers against the challenge viruses were 91.9; 15.1 and 60.6 (SV-126.8, BVDV-1); and 10; <10 and 28.3 (SV-260, BVDV-2) for vaccines A, B and C, respectively. The antibody levels to the homologous viruses were not sufficient to prevent virus replication, viremia and transplacental transmission of the virus upon challenge. Infectious virus was detected in the blood of all vaccinated ewes and in their fetuses. These results demonstrate that the vaccines tested induced low to moderate titers of antibody against BVDV-1 and even lower titers against BVDV-2 in most animals. The antibody levels declined progressively and were not sufficient to prevent fetal infection upon challenge with BVDV-1 and BVDV-2 at day180. In addition, these findings demonstrate that pregnant sheep represent an adequate model to study fetal protection by BVDV vaccines.
bovine viral diarrhea virus; BVDV; vaccines; fetal protection; sheep
