Camel Pox Vaccine Production in the Sudan

Nour T A M, Fatima A T, Ballal A and Elhussein A M

Camel Pox Vaccine Production in the Sudan

Nour T A M, Fatima A T, Ballal A and Elhussein A M

Central Veterinary Research Laboratory, UAE

: J Vet Sci Med Diagn

Abstract

The camel population in the Sudan is about 2.5 million heads and camel pox disease is wide spread which leads to high economical losses, disease control is also important for camel export. Camel pox vaccine was produced using a master seed lot which was donated by PANVAC and cultivated on a continuous cell line of African green monkey kidney cell (VERO) and tested for the first time in Sudan. The vaccine was produced according to OIE manual and subjected to potency, safety and efficacy tests in the host animals. The identity test for vaccine virus and locally isolated wild type virus was done as the first step using AGID, VN, and PCR tests. Moreover, sterility test was done for bacterial, mycoplasmas and fungal contaminations. The working seed bank was further tested for safety by inoculation of 6 susceptible camels with 10x, the recommended field dose of camel pox vaccine (104 TCID50) using the subcutaneous route. The vaccine efficacy was also demonstrated in 14 healthy susceptible camels. Thus, 10 camels were vaccinated by 103 TCID50 by S/C route and 4 were inoculated with phosphate buffer saline (PBS) and kept as control. The vaccine was safe and the inoculated animals remained healthy without any adverse reaction, neither signs of illness nor a rise in rectal temperature were recorded for up to 40 days post vaccination. Sero-monitoring of the vaccinated camels revealed production of protective immune response after the fourth week of vaccination, while control camels did not seroconvert. 40 days post vaccination all the vaccinated and control groups were challenged by 105.6 TCID50 S/C with camel pox. Wild type virus, only the control group developed very severe clinical signs and fever 40Ã‚ÂºC with generalized and localized camel pox lesions, while the vaccinated groups withstood the test without death or clinical signs. These results confirmed that the produced vaccine batch was safe, and immunogenic under laboratory and field trials, which was conducted using 300 camels.