Many viral diseases have severe negative socio-economic consequences in the ruminant industry. For example, goat pox, sheep pox, and lumpy skin disease, characterized by skin lesions in ruminants, impose a major burden on ruminant health and economic activities, especially in Africa. Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is a highly contagious viral disease that mainly affects sheep and goats. Bluetongue disease, Rift Valley fever, and Nairobi sheep disease are three conventional arboviral diseases in small ruminants. In 2011, the Schmallenberg virus emerged in Europe and consequently caused a severe epidemic in large ruminants. In addition, bovine viral diarrhea and infectious bovine rhinotracheitis, caused by bovine viral diarrhea virus and by bovine herpesvirus-1 respectively, are considered to be two major infectious diseases in the cattle industry worldwide due to their high prevalence, persistence, and clinical consequences.
Vaccines are among the most efficient tools for the prevention of viral diseases in ruminants. Development of the Plowright tissue culture rinderpest vaccine against rinderpest virus in the 1960s was a key landmark in rinderpest control, especially for the assurance of global freedom from rinderpest officially declared at the 79th World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) General Session in 2011. Conventional vaccines, including live-attenuated and inactivated vaccines, have been broadly used for controlling ruminant infectious diseases. However, a number of drawbacks of these established vaccines remain, including lack of differentiability of infected from vaccinated animals (DIVA), limitation in the efficacy spectrum, and low immunization safety of live vaccines. New generation vaccines, such as subunit, nucleic acid, vectored, and edible vaccines, have shown an ability to overcome these problems. For example, the lack of the entire virion makes it possible to implement the DIVA strategy for immunization in ruminants. Moreover, many novel vaccines exhibit the ability to prevent reversion to virulence, and some of them are independent of a cold chain for shipment, which live-attenuated vaccines require strictly.
Despite the advantages above, most novel vaccines are not commercially available. For this Research Topic, we aim to bring together discussions on current progress and challenges in the development of new generation vaccines against viral diseases of ruminants. We welcome submissions of Original Researches, Reviews, Mini-Reviews, and Case Reports, focusing on but not limited to:
- Advances in new generation vaccines
- Advanced techniques to improve conventional vaccines
- Methodology for selection of novel anti-viral vaccine candidates
- Evaluation of the efficacy of anti-viral vaccines in ruminants
- Process optimization for the production of novel anti-viral vaccines against ruminant infectious diseases
- Development and application of novel adjuvants for anti-viral vaccines in ruminants
Many viral diseases have severe negative socio-economic consequences in the ruminant industry. For example, goat pox, sheep pox, and lumpy skin disease, characterized by skin lesions in ruminants, impose a major burden on ruminant health and economic activities, especially in Africa. Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is a highly contagious viral disease that mainly affects sheep and goats. Bluetongue disease, Rift Valley fever, and Nairobi sheep disease are three conventional arboviral diseases in small ruminants. In 2011, the Schmallenberg virus emerged in Europe and consequently caused a severe epidemic in large ruminants. In addition, bovine viral diarrhea and infectious bovine rhinotracheitis, caused by bovine viral diarrhea virus and by bovine herpesvirus-1 respectively, are considered to be two major infectious diseases in the cattle industry worldwide due to their high prevalence, persistence, and clinical consequences.
Vaccines are among the most efficient tools for the prevention of viral diseases in ruminants. Development of the Plowright tissue culture rinderpest vaccine against rinderpest virus in the 1960s was a key landmark in rinderpest control, especially for the assurance of global freedom from rinderpest officially declared at the 79th World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) General Session in 2011. Conventional vaccines, including live-attenuated and inactivated vaccines, have been broadly used for controlling ruminant infectious diseases. However, a number of drawbacks of these established vaccines remain, including lack of differentiability of infected from vaccinated animals (DIVA), limitation in the efficacy spectrum, and low immunization safety of live vaccines. New generation vaccines, such as subunit, nucleic acid, vectored, and edible vaccines, have shown an ability to overcome these problems. For example, the lack of the entire virion makes it possible to implement the DIVA strategy for immunization in ruminants. Moreover, many novel vaccines exhibit the ability to prevent reversion to virulence, and some of them are independent of a cold chain for shipment, which live-attenuated vaccines require strictly.
Despite the advantages above, most novel vaccines are not commercially available. For this Research Topic, we aim to bring together discussions on current progress and challenges in the development of new generation vaccines against viral diseases of ruminants. We welcome submissions of Original Researches, Reviews, Mini-Reviews, and Case Reports, focusing on but not limited to:
- Advances in new generation vaccines
- Advanced techniques to improve conventional vaccines
- Methodology for selection of novel anti-viral vaccine candidates
- Evaluation of the efficacy of anti-viral vaccines in ruminants
- Process optimization for the production of novel anti-viral vaccines against ruminant infectious diseases
- Development and application of novel adjuvants for anti-viral vaccines in ruminants
