S1 domain of the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus spike protein as a vaccine antigen

Makadiya, Niraj; Brownlie, Robert; van den Hurk, Jan; Berube, Nathalie; Allan, Brenda; Gerdts, Volker; Zakhartchouk, Alexander

Porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) was first observed in Europe in the early 1970s, and PEDV was first isolated in Belgium in 1978 [6] . Subsequently, PED has become an endemic disease in Asian pig farming countries. Severe PED outbreaks were reported in China in 2010-2012 [7, 8] . From April 2013 to the present, major PEDV outbreaks have been reported in the USA [9] , Canada [10] , Taiwan [11] and Europian countries [12, 13] . The PED is characterized by the presence of watery diarrhea in the infected piglets in first few weeks of their life, dehydration, vomiting and anorexia resulting in high morbidity and mortality [14] . PEDV infection of older pigs results in considerably lower morbidity and mortality. The symptoms of the disease are similar to transmissible gastroenteritis of pigs and hence only laboratory tests can aid in differencial diagnosis [15] . Although, some efforts have been made to create the vaccine against PEDV with varied success, no effective vaccine is available in the market to protect the newborn piglets [14, 15] .