Vaccination to protect calves against infectious bovine rhinotracheitis

A commercially available inactivated vaccine against infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (BHV1) was tested to assess its ability to immunise young seronegative calves and protect them against challenge with a virulent strain of BHV1. Calves showed seroconversion after one or two doses of vaccine. A two-dose and three-dose vaccination regimen each afforded calves significant protection against challenge as judged by the development of clinical symptoms. Vaccinated calves were on average 7 to 10 kg heavier than control calves 24 days after challenge, a statistically significant difference. Vaccination had no significant effect on the virus excretion pattern after challenge.     

Foot-and-mouth disease. Infection trial in cattle after a single vaccination

Following an outbreak of FMD caused by an A5 strain in the spring of 1984, ten cattle were vaccinated with samples of the five commercial vaccines used for the vaccination campaign in that year, i.e. two animals per vaccine. Six weeks later the cattle were challenged by contact with animals inoculated with the virus strain isolated from the field outbreak. Seven of the ten cattle became severely ill, exhibiting the typical symptoms of FMD, one animal did not show any clinical symptoms, the remaining two weak ones that might have escaped recognition by the cattlemen. Virus could be recovered from the vaccinated animals from days 2 to 10 following contact with the non-vaccinated infected cattle. It was concluded that a single vaccination does not protect cattle against the isolate.     

Foot-and-mouth disease. Challenge of cattle after multiple vaccinations

Four groups of six cattle were vaccinated from two to five times at 6 month intervals with two different trivalent FMD vaccines licensed in the given year. The FMDV type A strains in the vaccines designated A5F and A5B were closely related. Three months after the last vaccination the cattle were challenged by contact with animals inoculated with the original field strain A5B. The inoculated animals developed typical FMD symptoms with vesicles in the mouth and on the feet. Those cattle which had received vaccines that did not contain strain A5B also became severely sick, even after five vaccinations. Animals vaccinated twice with type B containing vaccine were also not completely protected. A safe protection can obviously only be achieved for fairly short periods of time if vaccine and challenge strain are homologous. It is proposed to change the rules of licensing, to speed up the procedure to vaccinate in cases of outbreaks. The need for further research, especially into improving vaccines, is stressed.     

Cloning of <Emphasis Type="Bold">β</Emphasis>-tubulin and succinate dehydrogenase genes from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Uromyces fabae</Emphasis> and establishing selection conditions for their use in transformation

The obligate biotrophic nature of rust fungi calls for an in planta selection scheme as a means of developing a rust transformation technology. We show that the fungicides benomyl (used as its formulated product benlate) and carboxin suppress morphogenesis of the rust fungus Uromyces fabae in vitro and disease in planta, the latter without affecting the health of the host. The limits of their applicability were determined regarding concentration, method of application and optimal time intervals of treatment. Besides procedures for selection, a stable transformation system will also need to include genetic markers allowing to enrich for transformed cells within a large background of untransformed cells. Since the molecular targets of benlate and carboxin had been identified as -tubulin and succinate dehydrogenase, respectively, the corresponding genes (Uf-TBBIand Uf-SUCDHI) were cloned and characterized. Molecular phylogenies demonstrate that both are typical homologs to those of other Basidiomycota. RT-PCR analysis confirmed that both genes are constitutively expressed in all developmental stages of the mitotic uredospore multiplication cycle. Since homologs of Uf-TBB1and Uf-SUCDH1 have been successfully used as selection markers in other fungal systems, they provide valuable tools to develop additional corner stones of a stable transformation system for rust fungi.     

Antibodies to Aqx toxin of Actinobacillus equuli in horses and foals

Actinobacillus equuli is found in the normal oral flora of horses, but has been associated with several diseases, and particularly with the usually fatal septicaemia in neonatal foals which is thought to be associated with a failure of the passive transfer of immunoglobulins via the colostrum. The Aqx protein of A equuli, belonging to the RTX family of pore-forming toxins, is also cytotoxic to horse lymphocytes. The presence of antibodies to Aqx was investigated in sera from individual horses from different regions; the sera from adult horses and foals 24 hours after birth reacted with Aqx, and sera from foals sampled shortly after an intake of colostrum also reacted with Aqx, but sera from foals taken before an intake of colostrum did not react with Aqx.     

Hereditary diseases in the horse: II. Polygenetic or multifactorial diseases

Many of the important diseases of sport and pleasure horses are thought to have a genetic component. The majority of these diseases, however, are multifactorial and are influenced not only by genetics, but also by environmental factors. In this review some of the most important multifactorial diseases are described and the current evidence for a genetic background is discussed.