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

There were no adverse reactions noticed at the injection site or overall health of sow post-vaccination. Each day post-challenge, the piglets were evaluated by animal services veterinarian for the clinical scores. The clinical score was assigned as 0 (healthy) to 4 (dead or moribund) for each piglet based on parameters such as animal demeanor, degree of depression and willingness to nurse. The average clinical scores for the vaccinated sow's piglets was close to zero, whereas the control sow's piglets had average scores reaching on day 2 and 3 postchallenge (Fig. 8a) . Similarly, fecal scores were recorded from 0 (normal pasty faces) to 2 (watery diarrhea) for all the piglets each day post-challenge. Diarrhea increased until day 4 post-challenge and then started to reduce for both groups of piglets (Fig. 8b) .