Friday, September 6, 2013

New PRRS vaccine


There’s a new vaccine to protect pigs from Porcine Respiratory and Reproductive Syndrome virus (PRRS).

It has been developed at the University of Ohio by Renukaradhya Gourapura, an associate professor in the university’s Food Animal Health Research Program.

It is an inactivated virus vaccine for nasal administration. It’s enclosed in biodegradable nanoparticles which improve its absorption into the pigs’ immune systems.

“Our tests have shown that two doses of this vaccine, administered intranasally along with a potent mucosal adjuvant, achieve 100 percent protection in pigs against genetically variant PRRS virus,” said Gourapura.
“Current PRRS virus vaccines are injected in the muscle, but that method of vaccination induces very little immunity in the respiratory system, where it’s actually needed,” he said.
“Applying the vaccine through the nose ensures that it goes directly into the respiratory system, where it’s better taken up by immune cells and induces adequate local mucosal immunity against the virus,” he is quoted by Farm & Dairy newspaper.