Abstract

Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae is the aetiological agent of porcine pleuropneumonia. Apx toxin, an exotoxin secreted by A. pleuropneumoniae, is one of the most important virulence factors. To construct an avirulent mutant strain by inactivation of ApxI toxin, the apxIC gene of A. pleuropneumoniae serovar 10 was inactivated by inserting a chloramphenicol resistance gene cassette into the downstream XhoI site of the apxIC gene for constructing the transfer plasmid. The transfer plasmid was introduced into the electrocompetent A. pleuropneumoniae serovar 10 for homologous recombination by electroporation. The mutant strain was obtained and identified by PCR and Southern blotting. The mutant strain was phenotypically identical to the parent strain except that it showed no haemolytic activity. The mutant strain was also able to secret the same ApxI toxin as the parent strain. In the intra-peritoneal mouse model, the virulence of the mutant strain decreased at least 100 fold compared with the parent strain. The mutant was evaluated as a potential vaccine using a vaccination-challenge trial in which pigs were given two intra-nasal doses of the mutant with 14 days' interval and then challenged 14 days after the last vaccination with A. pleuropneumoniae serovar 1 and serovar 10 reference strains respectively. The death number and lung lesion score in the vaccinated pigs given the serovar 1 challenge were obviously lower than those in the unvaccinated pigs. And the lower lung lesion score was also observed in the vaccinated pigs challenged with serovar 10. And the positive numbers of A. pleuropneumoniae re-isolation and PCR detection showed the same consistency. The vaccination-challenge trial suggested that the mutant strain could offer partial cross-protection as a live attenuated vaccine against A . pleuropneumoniae infection.