Both DNA and Orf virus (ORFV; Parapox virus) based vaccines have shown promise as alternatives for conventional vaccines in pigs against pseudorabies virus (PRV) infection causing Aujeszky's disease. In the present study we evaluated the efficacy of different prime-boost regimes in pigs in terms of immunogenicity and protection against challenge infection with PRV. The different prime-boost regimes consisted of the homologous prime-boost regimes (DNA followed by DNA or ORFV followed by ORFV) and the heterologous prime-boost regimes (DNA followed by ORFV and ORFV followed by DNA), all based on glycoprotein D (gD) of PRV. Moreover, we compared the efficacy of the different prime-boost regimes with the efficacy of a conventional modified live vaccine (MLV). The different prime-boost regimes resulted in different levels of immunity and protection against challenge infection. Most effective was the regime of priming with DNA vaccine followed by boosting with the ORFV based vaccine. This regime resulted in strong antibody responses, comparable to the antibody responses obtained after prime-boost vaccination with a conventional MLV vaccine. Also with regard to protection, the prime DNA-boost ORFV regime performed better than the other prime-boost regimes. This study demonstrates the potential of a heterologous prime-boost vaccination strategy against PRV based on a single antigen, and that in the natural host, the pig.
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