Biomed Pap Med Fac Univ Palacky Olomouc Czech Repub. 2005, 149(2):297-302 | DOI: 10.5507/bp.2005.046

Testing of the Biocan® B inj. ad us. vet. vaccine and development of the new recombinant vaccine against canine borreliosis

Jana Tuháčková^a, Jana Běláková^b, Michal Křupka^b, Jiří Nepeřený^a, Josef Chumela^a, Evžen Weigl^b, Vladimír Vrzal^a

^a Bioveta, a.s. Komenského 212, 683 23 Ivanovice na Hané, Czech Republic

^b Department of Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic

Verification of the efficacy of Biocan® B inj. ad us. vet. (Bioveta, a.s.) was done by challenge testing. Ticks collected in the nature were used as natural vectors of the infection. Six beagles and two control ones were used in the test. Formation of outer surface protein A specific antibodies (OspA antibodies) and borrelia specific immonoglobulins (IgG) was measured by Western blot and EIA in the sera samples. The tissue samples were used for detection of borreliae by cultivation method and dark field microscopy (DFM). Formation of IgG antibodies and OspA antibodies after vaccination was observed. The maximum titer level of antibodies was reached between 21. and 49. day after vaccination and then slowly decreased. Presence of borreliae was detected only in skin biopsies of non-vaccinated dogs. The post mortem tissue samples showed presence of borreliae in all of the samples of the non-vaccinated dogs. The tissues of the vaccinated dogs were not infected with borreliae, except for two samples of dog with low titer levels of OspA antibodies. The development of the new vaccine is based on preparation of recombinant outer surface proteins (e.g. rOspA and rOspC) of B. afzelii, B. burgdorferi and B. garinii origin. Chosen recombinant proteins were successfully expressed in E. coli. The obtained purified proteins are currently being tested on laboratory BALB/c mice. Formation of specific antibodies against some recombinant proteins has been confirmed. These proteins are suitable candidates for preparation of a vaccine prototype and they will be subsequently used in challenge tests.

Keywords: Keywords: Borrelia, Challenge test, Recombinant vaccine, OspA, OspC, Dog, Biocan B, BALB, c mice

Received: October 3, 2005; Accepted: November 15, 2005; Published: December 1, 2005  Show citation