DN A VACCINES AGAINST AFRICAN SWINE FEVER VIRUS: RELEVANCE OF HUMORAL AND CELLULAR RESPONSES IN PROTECTION

摘要

African Sw ine Fever (ASF) is a highly infectious disease of obligatory declaration in the OIE. There is not a vaccine available against ASFV and the control of the disease is based on a rapid diagnosis and the sacrifice of the animals. In the mid 90sit was demonstrated that antibodies directed concomitantly against p54 and p30 were able to neutralize the virus and conferred partial protection (1). Moreover, an additional antigen, the haemagglutinin (HA) of the virus, with homology to the CD2 lymphocyte surface antigen, was capable by itself to induce protection in the absence of neutralizing antibodies by mechanisms still unexplained but that might be related to the induction of T-cell responses (2). The aim of the present work was to develop newvaccines against ASFV and to try to clarify the relevance of the humoral and cellular responses in protection. To do so, we planned to use the ASFV antigens described above and diverse vaccine strategies based on plasmid DNA immunization.