Safety of African Swine Fever Vaccine Candidate Lv17/WB/Rie1 in Wild Boar: Overdose and Repeated Doses.

Resumen: African swine fever (ASF) is a highly lethal infectious disease that affects domestic pigs and wild boar. Outbreaks of ASF have grown considerably in the last decade causing important economic consequences for the swine industry. Its control is hampered by the lack of an effective treatment or vaccine. In Europe, the wild boar is a key wild reservoir for ASF. The results of the oral vaccination trial of wild boar with Lv17/WB/Rie1 are hope for this problem. However, this vaccine candidate has certain safety concerns, since it is a naturally attenuated vaccine. Therefore, the current study aims to evaluate the safety of this vaccine candidate in terms of overdose (high dose) and repeated doses (revaccination) in wild boar. Low-dose orally vaccinated animals developed only a slight transient fever after vaccination and revaccination. This was also the case for most of the high-dose vaccinated wild boar, except for one of them which succumbed after revaccination. Although this fatality was related to hierarchical fights between animals, we consider that further studies are required for clarification. Considering these new results and the current epidemiological situation of ASF in wild boar, this vaccine prototype is a promising tool for the control of the disease in these wild populations, although further studies are needed.

Barasona JA, Cadenas-Fernández E, Kosowska A, Barroso-Arévalo S, Rivera B, Sánchez R, Porras N, Gallardo C y Sánchez-Vizcaíno JM.

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José Manuel Sánchez-Vizcaíno, catedrático de Sanidad Animal en la Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) e investigador del Centro de Vigilancia Sanitaria Veterinaria (VISAVET), y Marisa Arias, directora del Centro de Investigación en Sanidad Animal (CISA-INIA), han sido galardonados con el VII Premio Isabel Mínguez Tudela a la Innovación en Sanidad Animal durante la XII Conferencia Anual de la Fundación Vet+i, celebrada este jueves 25 de noviembre de 2021.

Noticia completa en la revista Animal's Health

Daniel García Párraga defendió su Tesis Doctoral titulada "Avances en el conocimiento de la fisiopatología del buceo en tortugas marinas: El descubrimiento de la enfermedad descompresiva" dirigido por José Manuel Sánchez-Vizcaíno y Antonio Jesús Fernández Rodríguez.

La defensa tuvo lugar el miércoles 17 de noviembre de 2021 en el Centro de Vigilancia Sanitaria Veterinaria de la Universidad Complutense. El trabajo obtuvo la máxima calificación de sobresaliente cum laude. 

¡Felicidades Daniel! El equipo SUAT te da la más sincera enhorabuena 

Publicamos un nuevo artículo titulado: Systematic Determination of Herpesvirus in Free-Ranging Cetaceans Stranded in the Western Mediterranean: Tissue Tropism and Associated Lesions

Resumen: The monitoring of herpesvirus infection provides useful information when assessing marine mammals’ health. This paper shows the prevalence of herpesvirus infection (80.85%) in 47 cetaceans stranded on the coast of the Valencian Community, Spain. Of the 966 tissues evaluated, 121 tested positive when employing nested-PCR (12.53%). The largest proportion of herpesvirus-positive tissue samples was in the reproductive system, nervous system, and tegument. Herpesvirus was more prevalent in females, juveniles, and calves. More than half the DNA PCR positive tissues contained herpesvirus RNA, indicating the presence of actively replicating virus. This RNA was most frequently found in neonates. Fourteen unique sequences were identified. Most amplified sequences belonged to the Gammaherpesvirinae subfamily, but a greater variation was found in Alphaherpesvirinae sequences. This is the first report of systematic herpesvirus DNA and RNA determination in free-ranging cetaceans. Nine (19.14%) were infected with cetacean morbillivirus and all of them (100%) were coinfected with herpesvirus. Lesions similar to those caused by herpesvirus in other species were observed, mainly in the skin, upper digestive tract, genitalia, and central nervous system. Other lesions were also attributable to concomitant etiologies or were nonspecific. It is necessary to investigate the possible role of herpesvirus infection in those cases.

Vargas-Castro I, Melero M, Crespo-Picazo JL, Jiménez MdlÁ, Sierra E, Rubio-Guerri C, Arbelo M, Fernández A, García-Párraga D, y Sánchez-Vizcaíno JM. 

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Nuevo artículo publicado en la revista Scientific Records de Nature research.

Resumen: African swine fever (ASF) is currently the most dangerous disease for the global pig industry, causing huge economic losses, due to the lack of effective vaccine or treatment. Only the early detection of ASF virus (ASFV) and proper biosecurity measures are effective to reduce the viral expansion. One of the most widely recognized risks as regards the introduction ASFV into a country is infected animals and contaminated livestock vehicles. In order to improve ASF surveillance, we have assessed the capacity for the detection and inactivation of ASFV genome by using Dry-Sponges (3 M) pre-hydrated with a new surfactant liquid. We sampled different surfaces in ASFV-contaminated facilities, including animal skins, and the results were compared to those obtained using a traditional sampling method. The surfactant liquid successfully inactivated the virus, while ASFV DNA was well preserved for the detection. This is an effective method to systematically recover ASFV DNA from different surfaces and skin, which has a key applied relevance in surveillance of vehicles transporting live animals and greatly improves animal welfare. This method provides an important basis for the detection of ASFV genome that can be assessed without the biosafety requirements of a BSL-3 laboratory at least in ASF-affected countries, which may substantially speed up the early detection of the pathogen.

Kosowska A, Barasona JA, Barroso-Arévalo S, Rivera B, Domínguez L, Sánchez-Vizcaíno JM.

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