Local and systemic immune response of a combined anthrax and sheep pox vaccine

Abstract

This study wascarried out to produce a combine anthrax and sheep pox vaccine and to compare its immune response with each of the single sheep pox and anthrax vaccine. Anthrax vaccine was produced in Roux flasks as a live spore vaccine, while sheep pox vaccine (SPV) was produced on lamb testicle (LT) monolayers. The combined vaccine was made from mechanical mixture of Bacillus anthracis (Sterne strain) live spores and the concentrated sheep pox vaccine, the mixture was lyophilized in 5 ml vials. The dose of each component of the final product was 1.0x 109 live spores/ml and 2.5log10 TCID50/ml of anthrax and sheep pox vaccine respectively. The potency of the combined vaccine was done by counting the number of the viable spores and by titration of sheep pox virus on sheep flank region. The viable spores count was found unchanged at the time vaccination (6 months of preservation at – 200 C, the virus produced nodular lesions on sheep flank when given intradermally. When the end point titration of sheep pox virus was conducted on flank region, the number of positive percentage was found 301and 277 for nonvaccinated control, 84 and 25 for sheep vaccinated with sheep pox vaccine and 50 and 54 for sheep vaccinated with the combined vaccine.