UTSA researcher developing vaccine for viral disease in horses
(April 9, 2002)--A University of Texas at San Antonio assistant professor
of microbiology, Hans Heidner, is working on a collaborative effort
to develop a safe vaccine to help the nation's horse breeding industry.
Heidner, along with researchers from the University of
California, Davis, and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, are trying
to develop a vaccine to protect horses against the disease called equine viral
arteritis (EVA). EVA is caused by the equine arteritis virus (EAV).
EAV has been found in horse populations in many countries and is particularly
threatening to the horse breeding industry. The virus is transmitted between
horses by nasal secretions and sexual contact. In adult horses, EVA causes
a range of symptoms including fever, depression, swelling of the legs and
loss of appetite. It also can cause pneumonia and death in young foals and
causes abortion in up to 80 percent of pregnant mares that become infected.
Heidner and his collaborators have developed a candidate vaccine to EVA that
is based on expression of EAV genes from a defective version of the Sindbis
virus. The defective viruses are known as replicons which are considerably
safer than traditional live virus vaccines because they are unable to spread
within the vaccinated horse.
Heidner and his collaborators have recently extended their research into another
agriculturally important viral disease called bluetongue disease. Bluetongue
disease is transmitted by biting gnats and causes sheep to develop fever,
swelling in the face and legs, weight loss and lameness. The disease earned
its name from the hemorrhaging of blood vessels that can occur in the tongue
and oral cavity of infected sheep.
"There are many human and animal diseases for which traditional vaccine
strategies have proven to be ineffective," said Heidner. "Vaccines
based on the replicon design offer several safety and efficacy features that
make them particularly attractive, and we hope that we will be able to engineer
replicon-based vaccines that can be used effectively against some of these
diseases.”
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UTSA researcher developing vaccine for viral disease in horses
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© The University of Texas at San Antonio, 2001