Potential DNA Vaccine for Haemorrhagic Septiceamia Disease

Pasteurella multocida is the main cause of haemorrhagic septicaemia (HS) outbreak in livestock, such as cattle and buffaloes. Conventional vaccines such as alum-precipitated or oil-adjuvant broth bacterins were injected subcutaneously to provide protection against HS. However, the immunity developed is only for short term and needed to be administered frequently. In our previous study, a short gene fragment from Pasteurella multocida serotype B was obtained via shotgun cloning technique and later was cloned into bacterial expression system. pQE32-ABA392 was found to possess immunogenic activity towards HS when tested in vivo in rat model. In this study, the targeted gene fragment of ABA392 was sub-cloned into a DNA expression vector pVAX1 and named as pVAX1-ABA392. The new recombinant vaccine was stable and expressed on mammalian cell lines. Serum sample collected from a group of vaccinated rats for ELISA test shows that the antibody in immunized rats was present at high titer and can be tested as a vaccine candidate with challenge in further studies. This successful recombinant vaccine is immunogenic and potentially could be used as vaccine in future against HS.