Characterization of recombinant BVDV-2 vaccine prototypes based on packaged replicons and replication competent deletion mutants

Vaccination against Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus plays a major role
in the obligatory German control program decided in 2008. Both
kinds of vaccines licensed today for the use in cattle have
disadvantages: MLV vaccines concerning their safety and killed
vaccines concerning efficacy. In the presented work, virus
generated by transfection of conventional bovine cell lines with
RNA derived from a new BVDV-2 full-length clone (Mischkale et al.,
2009) was used to infect cattle. Its effects compared to the wild
type strain were investigated. Further, two mutants derived from
this BVDV-2 full-length cDNA clone were tested in a
vaccination-challenge trial in cattle following two approaches of
attenuation (pseudovirions and deletion of the Npro protein). Their
safety and efficacy as vaccine candidates were investigated.