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Institute for Animal Health at the BA Festival: Rinderpest on the ropes
September 02, 2003New vaccines could aid efforts to rid the world of cattle plague, according to research presented today (Tuesday 09 September 2003) at the BA festival of Science.
Professor Tom Barrett and colleagues at the Institute for Animal Health (IAH) have produced several candidate vaccines, using the latest DNA technology, which could assist in the final stages of the global rinderpest eradication programme (GREP). Rinderpest (cattle plague) was once a serious threat to livestock throughout the world, including Britain. GREP is timetabled for completion by 2010. This would make rinderpest only the second ever infectious disease to be completely eradicated. The first was smallpox.
Professor Barrett says, "It is now necessary to stop mass vaccination in the remaining parts of Eastern Africa where rinderpest is still endemic. At this stage it would be useful to use a marker vaccine for emergency use that would enable vaccinated animals to be distinguished from those that have recovered from a natural infection."
"We have produced a marker vaccine by removing a protein from the rinderpest virus (RPV). A chimeric virus was formed by replacing the RPV coat protein with an identical protein from a related virus, peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV). This new virus can be easily distinguished from natural rinderpest virus using currently available diagnostic tests. So-called ELISA tests can detect antibodies to each of the RPV and PPRV coat proteins. Vaccinated animals become positive in an PPRV-specific ELISA and negative in the RPV-specific test," Professor Barrett reveals.
Since a reverse genetics system for the rinderpest virus was established at IAH Pirbright in 1996 many key parts of the rinderpest virus responsible for causing disease have been discovered. The secret behind reverse genetics is that it allows the RNA genetic code of some viruses to be modified through a DNA copy, to produce a live virus containing DNA.
Professor Barrett explains, " the beauty of the reverse genetics system is that it allows the molecular determinants of virulence and attenuation in this virus to be studied on a rational scientific basis. This is will be important in assessing the safety of any new rinderpest vaccine before general use."
Institute for Animal Health
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Plants display 'molecular amnesia'
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