RNA Particle FMDV vaccine proof of concept study in cattle

摘要

Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) is a highly infectious disease of cloven-hoofed animals that rapidly spreads by contact and aerosol. Outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands,countries that had been FMDV-free for many decades, resulted in significant adverse economic consequences including slaughter of large numbers of animals and loss of export markets. A recent very limited FMDV outbreak in the United Kingdom in the summerof 2007, which resulted from the escape of FMDV from the Pirbright facility that houses both the government Institute of Animal Health and the Merial vaccine manufacturing laboratory, resulted in significant economic losses (~$100 million US). These outbreaks demonstrate the vulnerability of FMD-free countries, such as the US, to this disease. Disease control procedures include restriction of animal movement, slaughter of infected and exposed animals, and vaccination in certain situations. However, current vaccines, which are chemically inactivated preparations of live virus, have a number of shortcomings including the need for costly high-containment manufacturing facilities for vaccine production, the difficulty in distinguishing vaccinated from infected animals, etc.