Background and Aims: Prevention of Lumpy skin disease (LSD) in cattle is heavily dependent on vaccination. Since the genetic structure of LSD virus has the close relatedness with other Capri-pox virus (CaPV). Therefore, the use of vaccine strains of CaPV derived from sheep and goat would be useful to protect cattle against LSD. Materials and Methods:The susceptible calves of dairy farms were vaccinated with two available LSD vaccines. These vaccines were live attenuated sheep pox and goat pox vaccine strains. To evaluate vaccine-induced immune responses, whole blood and serum samples were collected up to 5 weeks post vaccination from both vaccinated and control groups. Results: The findings showed that, lymphocyte proliferation index in response to recall antigen in goat pox vaccine was higher than sheep pox vaccine in all time-point of experiments, and this difference was significant in weeks 1 and 5 post vaccination (p<0.05). Although the levels of antibody production in both vaccinated groups was almost the similar, and there was no statistically significant difference, but in goat pox vaccine slightly higher than sheep pox vaccine. Also, the interferon gamma and IL-4 production in goat pox vaccine were higher than sheep pox vaccine in all-time point and statistically significant at week 3 post vaccination (p< 0.05). Conclusions: From this study we found that live attenuated goat pox vaccine induced high level of lymphocyte proliferation and interferon gamma and IL-4, so it considered good vaccine to control of Lumpy skin disease.

Background: The analysis of antigen-specific cytokine expression has been considered to evaluate the immune responses and vaccines efficacy in recent years. The aim of this study was to compare the cell-mediated immune response characteristics of two Capri pox virus (CaPV) vaccines against lumpy skin disease in cattle. Materials and Methods: Two Capri pox virus vaccines were administered to dairy cows of two farms and followed up to 5 weeks post vaccination. These vaccines were live attenuated Goat pox virus (GTP) Gorgan strain (n=20) and Sheep pox virus (SPP) Romanian strain (n=20). Cell-mediated immune response of vaccinated calves was evaluated using in vitro lymphocyte proliferation and IFN- and IL-4 release assay after stimulation with recall vaccine strains, and in vivo cytokine expression in PBMCs by real-time PCR. Results: Lymphocyte proliferation in GTP-and SPP-vaccinated groups began to increase till reached to its peak at third week post vaccination and then decreased in the weeks thereafter. Stimulation index in stimulated PBMCs in GTPvaccinated calves was higher than SPP-vaccinated calves in all weeks, which indicated higher levels of immunogenicity produced by the GTP-vaccine in cattle. Also, in both vaccinated groups the peak release of IFN- and IL-4 proteins in cultured PBMCs in response to recall antigen was detected at week 3 post vaccination. Although the mean of the cytokine release in GTP-vaccinated calves was higher than SPP-vaccinated calves in all weeks of experiment, a significant difference was only observed at week 3 post vaccination (P<0.05). In contrast, the IFN- mRNA expression in PBMCs of vaccinated groups was induced early, peaked at week 1 post vaccination and decreased in the weeks thereafter, and this rate was higher in GTP-vaccinated calves compared with SPP-vaccinated calves in all weeks, but the significant difference was only found at week 3 post vaccination (P<0.05). However, the IL-4 mRNA expression showed delayed induction and peaked at week 3, and unlike the SPP group, it remained at this level in GTP group, until the end of experiment. Also this rate of expression in GTP-vaccinated calves was higher than SPP-vaccinated calves in all weeks and had a significant increase at week 5 post vaccination (P<0.05). Conclusion:The findings show that due to induction of high level cell-mediated immune response in live attenuated GTP vaccine compared to SPP vaccine, GTP vaccine has a good immunogenic response, and therefore can be a better choice for vaccination against lumpy skin disease.