Bovine Malignant Catarrhal Fever - Vaccine

Vaccine

Unfortunately a vaccine for malignant catarrhal fever (MCF) has not yet been developed. Developing a vaccine has been difficult because the virus will not grow in cell culture and until recently it was not known why. Researchers at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) found that the virus undergoes changes within the animal’s body, a process known as “cell tropism switching.” In cell tropism switching, the virus targets different cells at different points in its life cycle. This phenomenon explains why it has been impossible to grow the virus on any one particular cell culture.

Because the virus is transmitted from sheep to bison and cattle, researchers are first focusing on the viral life cycle in sheep. The viral life cycle is outlined in three stages: entry, maintenance, and shedding. Entry occurs through the sheep’s nasal cavity and enters into the lungs where it replicates. The virus undergoes a tropic change and infects lymphocytes, also known as white blood cells, which play a role in the sheep’s immune system. In the maintenance stage the virus remains on the sheep’s lymphocytes and circulates the body. Finally, during the shedding stage, the virus undergoes another change and shifts its target cells from lymphocytes to nasal cavity cells, where it is then shed through nasal secretions. This discovery undoubtedly puts scientists on the right track for developing a vaccine- starting with the correct cell culture for each stage of the virus lifecycle- but ARS researchers are also looking into alternative methods to develop a vaccine. Researchers are experimenting with the MCF virus that infects tofi (an African antelope) because it will grow in cell culture and does not infect cattle. Researchers hope that inserting genes from the sheep MCF virus into the tofi MCF virus will ultimately be an effective MCF vaccine for cattle and bison. While there is much ground left to cover, scientists are getting closer and closer to developing a vaccine.