Vaccination with recombinant Clostridium perfringens toxoids α and β promotes elevated antepartum and passive humoral immunity in swine

Abstract

Due to the increasingly restricted use of antimicrobials in animal production systems, the prevention and control of Clostridium perfringens type A- and C-induced diarrhea in piglets should be based on passive immunization via the prepartum vaccination of sows. Given the current obstacles in the production of conventional clostridial vaccines, the use of recombinant proteins has been considered to represent a promising alternative. In the present study, the neutralizing antibody response of immunized sows and their litters to a bivalent vaccine containing the C. perfringens recombinant toxoids alpha (rTA) and beta (rTB) produced in Escherichia coli was assessed. Rabbits (n=8) and pregnant sows (n=7) were immunized with 200μg of each recombinant antigen using Al(OH)3 as adjuvant. The alpha and beta antitoxin titer detected in the rabbits' serum pool was 9.6 and 20.4IU/mL, respectively. The mean alpha and beta antitoxin titers in the sows' sera were 6.0±0.9IU/mL and 14.5±2.2IU/mL, and the corresponding individual coefficients of variation (CV) were 16.04% and 14.91%, respectively. The mean alpha and beta antitoxin titers in the litters' serum pools were 4.2±0.4IU/mL and 10.9±1.7IU/mL, and the CV between litters was 9.23% and 9.85%, respectively. The results showed that the rTA and rTB proteins produced and tested in the present study induced an immune response and can be regarded as candidates for the development of a commercial vaccine against C. perfringens type A- and C-induced diarrhea in pigs.

Prevalence of enteric pathogens in diarrheic and non-diarrheic samples from pig farms with neonatal diarrhea in the North East of Spain

“…As regards C. perfringens type C, the prevalence detected in the present study was low. This could be the result of the routine vaccination plan implemented in sows (Salvarani et al, 2013).…”

Recombinant Alpha, Beta, and Epsilon Toxins of Clostridium perfringens: Production Strategies and Applications as Veterinary Vaccines

“…Further studies have focused on determining the toxicity mechanism of CPB and have generated important recommendations for vaccinology specialists that have facilitated the development of recombinant vaccines [61,62,63,64]. Of the various strategies that are used to develop recombinant vaccines containing CPB, four approaches, in particular, are worth highlighting: (1) the insertion of point mutations for the generation of toxoids; (2) the expression of the whole toxin sequence; (3) the expression of its C -terminal domain (CPB-C (143–311) ); and (4) the expression of chimeric antigens containing other toxins (e.g., CPA, CPB2, or ETX) or the B subunit of the heat-labile enterotoxin of E. coli (LTB) (Table 3) [18,26,65,66,67,68,69,70,71]. …”

“…Numerous studies have described the use of recombinant toxins in illness immunoprophylaxis caused by C. perfringens in food animals (Table 5) [22,26,68,69,94,104]. Jiang et al [105] evaluated the treatment of calves using a trivalent vaccine that contained 300 µg of each antigen (rCPA (247–370) , rCPB and rETX) emulsified in oil adjuvant ISA 15A VG.…”

Biology and Diseases of Swine

“…Individual piglets and pregnant swine that are at risk from recent exposure should be vaccinated with recombinant toxoids α and β (Salvarani et al, 2013). Individual piglets and pregnant swine that are at risk from recent exposure should be vaccinated with recombinant toxoids α and β (Salvarani et al, 2013).…”