Improving the duration of immunity for FMD vaccines

口蹄疫是牛、猪、绵羊和山羊的一种高度传染性病毒性疾病。目前化学灭活的油佐剂口蹄疫疫苗是控制口蹄疫的关键因素。虽然这些疫苗对猪和反刍动物有效，但保护性免疫是短暂的（3个月）。重复接种疫苗的需要严重限制了基于疫苗的控制规划。能够产生更广泛保护作用的更合适的疫苗菌株，以及有助于刺激更长的免疫持续时间的新型佐剂的鉴定，将对口蹄疫控制作出重大贡献。在BBSRC/DFID资助的资助下，我们已经确定了一种疫苗株，它提供了更广泛的保护和一种增强免疫力的新型佐剂。新配制的疫苗保护所有接种过疫苗的动物免受活病毒攻击。因此，我们有兴趣进一步研究这种新疫苗制剂是否能实现更长时间的免疫。

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.