Vaccination against Louping Ill Virus Protects Goats from Experimental Challenge with Spanish Goat Encephalitis Virus.
Spanish goat encephalitis virus (SGEV) is a recently described member of the genus Flavivirus belonging to the tick-borne encephalitis group of viruses, and is closely related to louping ill virus (LIV). Naturally acquired disease in goats results in severe, acute encephalitis and 100% mortality. Eighteen goats were challenged subcutaneously with SGEV; nine were vaccinated previously against LIV and nine were not. None of the vaccinated goats showed any clinical signs of disease or histological lesions, but all of the non-vaccinated goats developed pyrexia and 5/9 developed neurological clinical signs, primarily tremors in the neck and ataxia. All non-vaccinated animals developed histological lesions restricted to the central nervous system and consistent with a lymphocytic meningomyeloencephalitis. Vaccinated goats had significantly (P <0.003) greater concentrations of serum IgG and lower levels of IgM (P <0.0001) compared with unvaccinated animals. SGEV RNA levels were below detectable limits in the vaccinated goats throughout the experiment, but increased rapidly and were significantly (P <0.0001) greater 2-10 days post challenge in the non-vaccinated group. In conclusion, vaccination of goats against LIV confers highly effective protection against SGEV; this is probably mediated by IgG and prevents an increase in viral RNA load in serum such that vaccinated animals would not be an effective reservoir of the virus.
['Salinas|L M|LM|', 'Casais|R|R|', 'García Marín|J F|JF|', 'Dalton|K P|KP|', 'Royo|L J|LJ|', 'Del Cerro|A|A|', 'Gayo|E|E|', 'Dagleish|M P|MP|', 'Alberdi|P|P|', 'Juste|R A|RA|', 'de la Fuente|J|J|', 'Balseiro|A|A|']
D000818:Animals D004669:Encephalitis Viruses, Tick-Borne D018792:Encephalitis, Viral D005260:Female D018177:Flavivirus Infections D015511:Goat Diseases D006041:Goats D014611:Vaccination D014765:Viral Vaccines
vaccination goat Spanish goat encephalitis virus experimental infection