Persistence of the protective immunity and kinetics of the isotype specific antibody response against the viral nucleocapsid protein after experimental Schmallenberg virus infection of XXXX .

@entity2209 @entity778 @entity742 @entity600
Schmallenberg virus (SBV) is an Orthobunyavirus that induces abortion, @entity2209 and @entity600 in ruminants. @entity778 induces a long lasting seroconversion under natural conditions. The persistence of the protective immunity and the isotype specific antibody response upon @entity778 of @entity742 has however not been studied in detail. Five @entity742 were kept in BSL3 facilities for more than 16  months and subjected to repeated @entity778 . Blood was regularly sampled and organs were collected at euthanasia. The presence of SBV RNA in serum and organs was measured with quantitative real-time PCR. The appearance and persistence of neutralizing and SBV nucleoprotein (N) isotype specific antibodies was determined with virus neutralization tests (VNT) and ELISAs. The primo @entity778 protected ewes against clinical signs, viraemia and virus replication in organs upon challenge infections more than 15  months later. Production of neutralizing SBV specific antibodies was first detected around 6  days post primo-inoculation with VNT and correlated with the appearance of SBV-N specific IgM antibodies. These IgM antibodies remained present for 2  weeks. SBV-N specific IgG antibodies were first detected between 10 and 21 dpi and reached a plateau at 28 dpi. This plateau remained consistently high and no significant decrease in titre was found over a period of more than 1  year. Similar results were found for the neutralising antibody response. In conclusion, the SBV specific IgM response probably eliminates SBV from the blood and the protective immunity induced by @entity778 protects @entity742 against reinfection for at least 16  months.
