• Vaccine Name: E. tenella DNA vaccine pcDNA-TA4-IL-2
• Target Pathogen: Eimeria tenella
• Target Disease: Hemorrhagic cecal coccidiosis
• Vaccine Ontology ID: VO_0011449
• Type: DNA vaccine
• Status: Research
• Antigen: E. tenella sporozoite TA4 surface antigen
• TA4 gene engineering:
  • Type: DNA vaccine construction
  • Description: PCR amplification of TA4 (without stop codon) was performed using the gene-specific primers with pET28a-TA4 as template. After purification, the amplified TA4 (without stop codon) was digested with BamHI and EcoRI and cloned into the BamHI/EcoRI sites of pcDNA3.1b. The recombinant plasmid pcDNA3.1b-TA4 (without stop codon) was confirmed by PCR amplification and endonuclease cleavage. Using the same method above, amplified chIL-2 product was ligated into pcDNA3.1b-TA4 (without stop codon) and pcDNA4.0c (Invitrogen) to construct pcDNA3.1b-TA4-IL2 and pcDNA4.0c-IL-2 (Song et al., 2009).
  • Detailed Gene Information: Click Here.
• DNA vaccine plasmid:
  • DNA vaccine plasmid name:
  • DNA vaccine plasmid VO ID: VO_0000158
• Immunization Route: Intramuscular injection (i.m.)

Chicken Response

• Vaccination Protocol: At 14 days of age, chickens were randomly distributed into seven groups (30/group), group 1 negative control, group 2 positive control, groups 3, 4, 5 and 6 immunized with 25 μg, 50 μg, 100 μg and 200 μg of DNA vaccine, respectively and group 7 vector control. Experimental groups were immunized with corresponding doses of DNA vaccine pcDNA3.1b–TA4–IL-2 by leg intramuscular injection. Control group chickens were injected with sterile TE or 100 μg pcDNA3.1b at the same injection site to the experimental groups. A booster immunization was given by the same method as the first immunization 7 days later (Song et al., 2009).
• Challenge Protocol: At 28 days of age, the chickens were weighed one-by-one and challenged with 5 × 10^4 sporulated oocysts of E. tenella JS except the negative control group. The chickens were weighed one-by-one and slaughtered 7 days post challenge (Song et al., 2009).
• Efficacy: The immunization procedure of DNA vaccine pcDNA-TA4-IL-2 of Eimeria tenella, including route, dose, time of immunization and age of primary immunization of chicken, was optimized. results illustrated that 25 microg was the optimal dose and intramuscular injection was the most effective route to induce protective immunity in Chinese Yellow chickens (Song et al., 2009).