A new vaccination regimen using adenovirus-vectored vaccine confers effective protection against African swine fever virus in swine

African swine fever (ASF) is an acute and highly contagious lethal infectious disease in swine that severely threatens the global pig industry. At present, a safe and efficacious vaccine is urgently required to prevent and control the disease. In this study, we evaluated the safety and immunogenicity of replication-incompetent type-2 adenoviruses carrying African swine fever virus (ASFV) antigens, namely <i>CP204L</i> (p30), <i>E183L</i> (p54), <i>EP402R</i> (CD2v), <i>B646L</i> (p72), and <i>B602L</i> (p72 chaperone). A vaccine cocktail delivered by simultaneous intramuscular (IM) and intranasal (IN) administration robustly elicited both systemic and mucosal immune responses against AFSV in mice and swine and provided highly effective protection against the circulating ASFV strain in farmed pigs. This multi-antigen cocktail vaccine was well tolerated in the vaccinated animals. No significant interference among antigens was observed. The combined IM and IN vaccination using this adenovirus-vectored antigen cocktail vaccine warrants further evaluation for providing safe and effective protection against ASFV infection and transmission.

非洲猪瘟（African swine fever, ASF）是一种急性、高传染性致死性猪传染病，对全球养猪业构成严重威胁。目前，亟需安全有效的疫苗以防控该疾病。本研究评估了携带非洲猪瘟病毒（African swine fever virus, ASFV）抗原的复制缺陷型2型腺病毒的安全性与免疫原性，所携带的抗原包括<i>CP204L</i>（p30）、<i>E183L</i>（p54）、<i>EP402R</i>（CD2v）、<i>B646L</i>（p72）以及<i>B602L</i>（p72分子伴侣蛋白）。同时采用肌内（intramuscular, IM）与鼻内（intranasal, IN）途径接种的多抗原联合疫苗，可在小鼠与猪体内强效诱导针对ASFV的系统性与黏膜免疫应答，并能为养殖猪提供针对流行ASFV毒株的高效保护。该多抗原联合疫苗在免疫动物中耐受性良好，未观察到抗原间存在显著相互干扰。采用此腺病毒载体多抗原联合疫苗进行肌内与鼻内联合免疫策略，有望为防控ASFV感染与传播提供安全有效的保护，有待进一步评估。