Evaluation of the protection conferred by a naturally attenuated <it>Neospora caninum</it> isolate against congenital and cerebral neosporosis in mice

• Main Authors: Rojo-Montejo Silvia, Collantes-Fernández Esther, López-Pérez Inmaculada, Risco-Castillo Verónica, Prenafeta Antoni, Ortega-Mora Luis
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2012-08-01
• Series: Veterinary Research
• Online Access: http://www.veterinaryresearch.org/content/43/1/62

<p>Abstract</p> <p>The parasite <it>Neospora caninum</it> is an important abortifacient agent in cattle worldwide. At present, the development of an effective and safe vaccine against bovine neosporosis is of great relevance. Recently, a new isolate of <it>N. caninum</it> (Nc-Spain 1 H) which was obtained from the brain of an asymptomatic congenitally infected calf, exhibited non-virulent behaviour in mouse and bovine infection models. The aim of this study was to determine the safety and efficacy of Nc-Spain 1 H when used as a vaccinal isolate in well-established BALB/c models of congenital and cerebral neosporosis. Mice were subcutaneously immunised twice at 3-week intervals and were challenged with 2 × 10⁶ tachyzoites of the virulent Nc-Liv isolate. After immunisation with live Nc-Spain 1 H tachyzoites, no parasitic DNA was detected in the dams’ brains before challenge and microsatellite analysis performed in PCR-positive mice showed that the profiles corresponded to the challenge isolate Nc-Liv, indicating the Nc-Spain 1 H isolate to be a safe vaccine candidate. The efficacy of the live vaccine was evaluated in the first experiment after the immunisation of mice with 5 × 10⁵ live Nc-Spain 1 H tachyzoites. This immunisation protocol significantly reduced the neonatal mortality to 2.4%, reduced the vertical transmission from 89.1% to 2.3% and completely limited the cerebral infection. These results were associated with a Th1-type immune response. In the second experiment, the effect of various immunising doses was established using ten-fold dilutions of the tachyzoites (from 5 × 10⁵ to 5 × 10). In all the cases, congenital protection rates above 60% were observed, and the mice that were immunised with the lowest dose (5 × 10) presented the highest protection rate (86%). Moreover, low immunising doses of Nc-Spain 1 H induced an IgG2a response, and high parasitic doses induced an IgG1 response. These results evidence the safety and the efficient protection that was conferred by Nc-Spain 1 H against congenital neosporosis, even when the mice were immunised with low parasitic doses.</p>