Characterization of antibody neutralization response against Bovine Coronavirus as a platform for the designing of improved vaccine

Studying infectious diseases of livestock animals is of high importance to preserve the welfare of the animals and prevent economic damage caused to the farmer. Understanding the immune response against the pathogenic agent can aid the development of drugs or prophylactic vaccines and thus improve farm animals’ welfare and minimize the farmer’s economic losses.
Bovine coronavirus (BCoV) is an RNA virus that causes respiratory and intestinal diseases in cattle and wild animals, resulting in economic losses to the beef and dairy industry.
Several commercial modified live or inactivated vaccines against BCoV are available. These vaccines contain, in most cases, one of two strains, the Mebus strain (the first strain isolated about fifty years ago) or strain C 1977. At present, it is not mandatory in Israel (as in the rest of the world) to vaccinate cattle against BCoV, but it is recommended to vaccinate pre-calving caws to provide protective immunity for the calves through the colostrum. Even though the vaccines have been commonly used for many years, most studies evaluating commercial vaccines report their safety and immunogenicity but do not report if they can elicit protective immunity.
A recent field study, conducted by researchers at the Kimron Veterinary Institute, in large dairy farms scattered in Israel indicated a genetic diversity among the strains currently circulating in Israel and between the local strains and the vaccines strain. These findings raise concerns about the effectiveness of vaccines currently used in Israel to elicit cross-genotype protective immunity.

This research proposal aims to investigate the adaptive humoral immunity and antibody neutralization response against BCoV. The working hypothesis is that a deep understanding of the antibody neutralization response against BCoV and high-resolution characterization of neutralization epitopes will serve as a platform for the structural-based design of an improved prophylactic vaccine to improve farm animals’ welfare and minimize the farmer’s economic damage.