Improving the duration of immunity for FMD vaccines

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Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious viral disease of cattle, pigs, sheep and goats. Currently chemically inactivated, oil adjuvanted FMD vaccines are a critical element in FMD control. Although these vaccines are effective in pigs and ruminants, protective immunity is short-lived (3 months).The need for repeated vaccination significantly constrains vaccine-based control programmes. More appropriate vaccine strains that induce broader protection, together with identification of novel adjuvants that help to stimulate a greater duration of immunity would make a significant contribution to FMD control. In a BBSRC/DFID funded grant we have identified a vaccine strain that provided broader protection and a novel adjuvant that enhanced immunity. The newly formulated vaccine protected all vaccinated animals upon live virus challenge. Therefore we are interested to investigate further whether this new vaccine formulation could achieve longer duration immunity.