INFECTIOUS GENOMIC COPY OF THE RUSSIAN VACCINE STRAIN OF CLASSICAL SWINE FEVER (HOG CHOLERA) VIRUS

摘要

Classical swine fever (CSF) is a serious infectious disease of pigs and wild boar, which causes significant economic losses in pig industries all over the world. Recently (1997-1998), a large outbreak has recurred in different parts of Europe and hasraised doubts on the current EU policy of non-vaccination against CSFV. Financial losses were extremely high due to slaughtering of pigs, disruption of trade, and compensation of fanners. In Russia there is a policy of total vaccination against CSF. Thetable below shows registered CSF outbreaks in 1990-1995 in Russia Vaccination of pigs with a live attenuated vaccine protects from the disease. While total vaccination policy against CSFV reduces number and severity of outbreaks, it does not provide a background for eradication of the disease. Vaccinated and chronically sick pigs all have antibodies against CSFV, which makes it impossible to separate them. There is clear need in development of marketed vaccines against CSF. CSFV belongs to the genus Pestiviruts of the Flaviviridae family along with bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) and border disease virus (BDV). A reverse genetics approach has been successfully applied to pestiviruses including CSFV (3, 4, 5). This approach allows insertion of antigenic markers into recombinant copy of viral genome. In the present study we have selected Russian vaccine CS and developed an infectious recombinant genome of this strain.