Immune response to vaccination with DNA encoding the bovine viral diarrhea virus major glycoprotein gp53 (E2)

Bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) is a worldwide pathogen in cattle which has not been controlled by classical vaccination. The region encoding the BVDV major glycoprotein gp53 (E2) known to possess virus-neutralizing activity was cloned into a mammalian expression vector under the human cytomegalovirus (CMV) intermediate early promoter. Intramuscular and intradermal administration of the recombinant plasmid DNA into BALB/c mice induced BVDV gp53-specific antibody responses to both biotypes (cytopathic and noncytopathic) of BVDV genotype 1, and to cytopathic BVDV genotype 2. BVDV-neutralizing antibodies were generated against BVDV genotype 1 strains and they also persisted 6 months after the last injection.