Protection of grass carp, Ctenopharyngon idellus (Valenciennes), through oral administration of a subunit vaccine against reovirus.

摘要

Grass carp, Ctenopharyngon idellus (Valenciennes), is an economically important species cultivated in China with an annual production exceeding 3.6 million metric tons since 2006. There are frequent reports of outbreaks of haemorrhagic disease in grass carp farms and mortality could reach 30?0%, which resulted in signi?cant economic losses (Ahne 1994; Fan, Shao & Fang 2010). Grass carp reovirus (GCRV) is the causative pathogen of haemorrhagic disease (Seng, Fang, Lam & Sin 2004). The outer capsid of GCRV is composed of 200 trimers of VP5朧P7 heterodimers. Interaction between inner and outer capsids is mediated by a clamping protein VP6. The pronounced VP5朧P7 complex plays a major role in recognition and attachment to host cells during viral replication (Cheng, Fang, Shah, Atanasov & Zhou 2008). At the same time, these proteins are believed to be the ?rst proteins that elicit neutralization antibodies from the host immune system (Wickramasinghe, Meanger, Enriquez & Wilcox 1993). Thus, VP5 and VP7 are major subunit proteins with vaccine potential.