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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Ames, Iowa » National Animal Disease Center » Food Safety and Enteric Pathogens Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #257537
Title: Cross protection against fowl cholera disease with the use of recombinant Pasteurella multocida FHAB2 peptides vaccine

Author
item Tatum, Fred
item Tabatabai, Louisa
item Briggs, Robert

Submitted to: Avian Diseases
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/1/2012
Publication Date: 9/1/2012
Citation: Tatum, F.M., Tabatabai, L.B., Briggs, R.E. 2012. Cross protection against fowl cholera disease with the use of recombinant Pasteurella multocida FHAB2 peptides vaccine. Avian Diseases. 56(3):589-591.

Interpretive Summary: The bacterium Pasteurella multocida is the causative agent of fowl cholera, an epidemic disease of poultry which is a major concern to poultry producers. Vaccination can be effective against this disease and safe broadly protective vaccines are requested by the poultry industry. Here we report the use of recombinant filamentous hemagglutinin peptides expressed in E. coli as a turkey vaccine. Our findings showed that turkeys vaccinated with these peptides were significantly protected against disease resulting from exposure to different strains of P. multocida.

Technical Abstract: It has been demonstrated that fhaB2 (filamentous hemagglutinin) is an important virulence factor for P. multocida in development of fowl cholera disease and that recombinant FHAB2 peptides derived from P. multocida, Pm-1059, protect turkeys against Pm-1059 challenge. To test the hypothesis that rFHAB2 immunization can cross-protect against a different P. multocida serotype, 3 gene fragments encoding approximately the first 30% of Pm-1059 fhaB2 were expressed individually in Escherichia coli. The recombinant peptides were purified, pooled and two 50 micrograms doses, consisting of equal amounts of the peptides, were administered subcutaneously to two groups of 20 turkeys twice at two week intervals. Two similar control groups were simultaneously administered sham inoculations consisting of leader protein present on the rFHAB2 peptides. The vaccinate and control groups were intranasally challenged 1 week after the second inoculation with either Pm-1059 (serotype A:3) or Pm-chi73 (serotype A:1). The results showed that turkeys immunized with rFHAB2 were significantly protected against both P. multocida strains ( p<0.01). In conclusion, vaccination with rFHAB2 peptides protected turkeys against challenge with a homologous and heterologous serotype of P. multocida.