Humoral immune response to different routes of myxomatosis vaccine application

Abstract

The aim of our study was to monitor the dynamics of the serological response to different application routes of live attenuated myxomatosis vaccine. The study included 42 Californian breed rabbits, aged 3 mo, of both sexes. They were separated into 7 groups: 6 experimental and 1 control. All experimental groups were vaccinated on day 0 with a single dose of myxomatosis vaccine (min 10^3.3 tissue culture infective dose 50 [TCID₅₀], max 10^5.8 TCID₅₀). Three of the groups were injected with monovalent attenuated myxomatosis vaccine using different types of application: intradermal (i.d.), intramuscular (i.m.) and subcutaneous (s.c.). The other 3 groups were injected with bivalent attenuated vaccine against myxomatosis and rabbit haemorrhagic disease; again the routes of administration were i.d., i.m. and s.c.. There were no clinical signs or serious side effects after vaccination. The serological response was evaluated on days 7, 15 and 30 with a monoclonal antibody based-competition enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (cELISA). More rapid and potent humoral response was detected in groups with i.d. inoculation in comparison to i.m. and s.c. routes. Vaccination with monovalent vaccine against myxomatosis induced higher antibody titre in comparison to bivalent vaccine. Our study showed that the vaccine application route and the type of vaccine used influence the speed and intensity of antibody response.