Rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD), also known as rabbit calicivirus disease (RCD) or viral haemorrhagic disease (VHD), is a highly infectious and often fatal disease that affects wild and domestic rabbits of the species Oryctolagus cuniculus. The infectious agent responsible for the disease is rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV), or rabbit calicivirus (RCV), genus Lagovirus of the family Caliciviridae. The virus infects only rabbits, and has been used in some countries to control rabbit populations (Wiki: Rabbit haemorrhagic disease).
An ALVAC (canarypox)-based recombinant virus ALVAC-RHDV (vCP309) expressing a native rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) capsid protein was derived and assessed for its protective efficacy in rabbits (Fischer et al., 1997).
f. Immunization Route
Intramuscular injection (i.m.)
g.
Rabbit Response
Vaccination Protocol:
Rabbits were inoculated with varying doses of vCP309 (Fischer et al., 1997).
Efficacy:
Protection against a lethal RHDV challenge was demonstrated in rabbits inoculated twice with either high (10(7) p.f.u.) or low (10(5) p.f.u.) doses of vCP309. However, animals in the high dose group developed significantly higher antibody response (Fischer et al., 1997).
Immune Response:
In all cases, the rabbits immunized with pcDNA-VP60 developed high level of RHDV-specific antibodies and cellular immune response (Yuan et al., 2013).
Efficacy:
The rabbits inoculated with PBS and pcDNA3.1(+) were not protected from the RHDV challenge and developed high fever and oronasal hemorrhage, and died within two days after challenge as a consequence of the viral infection. All pcDNA-VP60 and RHDV inactive vaccine vaccinated rabbits survived (Yuan et al., 2013).
RHDV VLPs were autonomously assembled in the silkworm pupae that have been infected by rBmNPV-VP60 (Zheng et al., 2016)
f. Immunization Route
Intramuscular injection (i.m.)
g. Description
VLP-based vaccine developed from silkworm pupae confers protection against rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus in rabbits. (Zheng et al., 2016)
h.
Rabbit Response
Vaccination Protocol:
Ninety rabbits were randomly divided into 3 groups (n = 30) and inoculated i.m. with 1 ml VLPs emulsified in Freund's Complete Adju- vant (FCA) (HAU of VLPs = 10^4), an equal dose of VLPs alone, or a mock control. (Zheng et al., 2016)
Immune Response:
Detectable HI titers in animals immunized with VLPs with or without FCA were first detected at 15 days after vaccination, and reached a plateau of 2^10 and 2^8 reciprocal dilutions by 90 and 60 days after vaccination, respectively. (Zheng et al., 2016)
Challenge Protocol:
At 30, 180, 240, and 360 days after vaccination, 6 rabbits from each group were randomly selected and challenged i.m. with 100 × LD50 of live RHDV (CHA/JL/10 strain) (Zheng et al., 2016)
Efficacy:
Full survival was observed in VLP + FCA rabbits when challenged at 360 days after vaccination with a single i.m. injection of 100 × LD50 RHDV. Full survival was observed in VLP only rabbits when challenged at 180 days after vaccination. In contrast, all control animals died 24–96 h after RHDV challenge with symptoms typical of RHD. (Zheng et al., 2016)
Description:
Recombinant Orf virus (ORFV; Parapoxvirus) expressing the major capsid protein VP1 (VP60) of the calicivirus, rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) (Rohde et al., 2011).
(Rohde et al., 2011) Anew recombinant Orf virus (ORFV; Parapoxvirus) expressing the major capsid protein VP1 (VP60) of RHDV.
g. Immunization Route
Intramuscular injection (i.m.)
h.
Rabbit Response
Vaccination Protocol:
The animals were immunized once, twice or 3-times by the intramuscular (i.m.) route with 1 ml D1701-V-VP1 containing 10^7 PFU (plaque-forming units), 10^6 PFU, or 10^5 PFU, respectively. For controls, groups of rabbits were vaccinated with the commercial RHDV vaccine “RIKA-VACC” (Riemser Arzneimittel AG, Germany) or remained non-vaccinated (Rohde et al., 2011).
Vaccine Immune Response Type:
VO_0003057
Challenge Protocol:
Twenty two days after the last vaccination, the animals were inoculated i.m. with 1 ml containing 104 LD50 (lethal dose 50) of the virulent RHDV strain “Eisenhüttenstadt” (Rohde et al., 2011).
Efficacy:
All animals immunized with the ORFV-vectored vaccine survived without any clinical signs, similar to animals control immunized with the commercially available inactivated RHDV vaccine RIKA-VACC. As expected, all non-immunized rabbits died within 48 h after challenge with RHD-specific clinical symptoms (Rohde et al., 2011).
IV. References
1. Fischer et al., 1997: Fischer L, Le Gros FX, Mason PW, Paoletti E. A recombinant canarypox virus protects rabbits against a lethal rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) challenge. Vaccine. 1997; 15(1); 90-96. [PubMed: 9041672].
2. Rohde et al., 2011: Rohde J, Schirrmeier H, Granzow H, Rziha HJ. A new recombinant Orf virus (ORFV, Parapoxvirus) protects rabbits against lethal infection with rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV). Vaccine. 2011; 29(49); 9256-9264. [PubMed: 22001119].
4. Yuan et al., 2013: Yuan D, Qu L, Liu J, Guo D, Jiang Q, Lin H, Si C. DNA vaccination with a gene encoding VP60 elicited protective immunity against rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus. Veterinary microbiology. 2013; 164(1-2); 1-8. [PubMed: 23419819].
