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Vaccine Development for Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome Virus in Dogs

  • Virology
  • Published:
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Abstract

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is a life-threatening viral zoonosis. The causative agent of this disease is the Dabie bandavirus, which is usually known as the SFTS virus (SFTSV). Although the role of vertebrates in SFTSV transmission to humans remains uncertain, some reports have suggested that dogs could potentially transmit SFTSV to humans. Consequently, preventive measures against SFTSV in dogs are urgently needed. In the present study, dogs were immunized three times at two-week intervals with formaldehyde-inactivated SFTSV with two types of adjuvants. SFTSV (KCD46) was injected into all dogs two weeks after the final immunization. Control dogs showed viremia from 2 to 4 days post infection (dpi), and displayed white pulp atrophy in the spleen, along with a high level of terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick-end labelling assay (TUNEL) positive area. However, the inactivated SFTSV vaccine groups exhibited rare pathological changes and significantly reduced TUNEL positive areas in the spleen. Furthermore, SFTSV viral loads were not detected at any of the tested dpi. Our results indicate that both adjuvants can be safely used in combination with an inactivated SFTSV formulation to induce strong neutralizing antibodies. Inactivated SFTSV vaccines effectively prevent pathogenicity and viremia in dogs infected with SFTSV. In conclusion, our study highlighted the potential of inactivated SFTSV vaccination for SFTSV control in dogs.

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Data Availability

All data supporting the findings of the present study are available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Korea Institute of Planning and Evaluation for Technology in Food, Agriculture, and Forestry (IPET) through the Animal Disease Management Technology Development Program funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) [321014-01].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bio-Safety Research Institute and College of Veterinary Medicine, Jeonbuk National University, Iksan, 54531, Republic of Korea

    Seok-Chan Park & Bumseok Kim

  2. Korea Zoonosis Research Institute, Jeonbuk National University, Iksan, 54531, Republic of Korea

    Da-Eun Jeong & Jun-Gu Kang

  3. Laboratory of Veterinary Internal Medicine, BK21 FOUR Future Veterinary Medicine Leading Education and Research Centre, Research Institute for Veterinary Science and College of Veterinary Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea

    Sun-Woo Han & Joon-Seok Chae

  4. Boran Pharma, Seoul, 04206, Republic of Korea

    Joo-Yong Lee & Hyun-Sook Kim

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  1. Seok-Chan Park
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Contributions

JGK conceived the study and designed the experiments. SCP and JGK prepared the manuscript. SCP, DEJ, SWH, JYL, and HSK carried out animal experiments, sample collection, and sample analysis. JSC, BK, and JGK provided significant intellectual input and revised the manuscript. All the authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jun-Gu Kang.

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Park, SC., Jeong, DE., Han, SW. et al. Vaccine Development for Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome Virus in Dogs. J Microbiol. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12275-024-00119-y

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