Development of a challenge model for contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP)

Flavio Sacchini^a,b, Anne Liljander^a, Elise Schieck^a and Joerg Jores^a,c

^aInternational Livestock Research Institute, Box 30709, 00100, Nairobi, Kenya

^bIstitututo Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise, via campo Boario 64100, Teramo. Italy.

^cInstitute of Veterinary Bacteriology, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, Länggass-Str. 122, Postfach 3001, Bern, Switzerland

Contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP) is a severe respiratory disease affecting goats in Africa and Asia. Control of the disease is today mostly dependent on an inactivated bacterin vaccine. However, the production of the vaccine is hampered by the fastidious growth nature of Mycoplasma capricolum subsp. capripneumoniae, (Mccp), the causative agent of CCPP.  Also, testing of new vaccines is difficult, since there is no robust challenge model for CCPP. The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) recommends validation of new vaccine strains by putting vaccinated and naïve goats in contact with CCPP-infected animals at least 3 months after vaccination. However, this approach requires large numbers of animals to yield statistically significant results.

At ILRI we have established a novel CCPP challenge model based on the recently isolated Mccp strain ILRI181 (Falquet et al., 2014; 10.1128/genomeA.01041-14). Final laboratory and histology analyses of the results are ongoing. The challenge model causes high mortality and morbidity, reducing the numbers of animals needed to test the efficiency of a vaccine and increasing reproducibility of results. The use of this challenge model will greatly contribute to CCPP vaccine development by allowing efficient vaccine testing. At ILRI we are currently using the challenge model to test new live vaccine strains. For more information contact: Elise Schieck, e-mail: e.schieck at cgiar.org