Evaluation of the goats humoral immune response induced by the Corynebacterium psudotuberculosis lyophilized live vaccine

Abstract

Caseous Lymphadenitis (CL), also known as “mal-do-caroço”, is a disease which infects ovines and caprines and eventually humans. The aethiologic agent of this disease is the Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis. It is a facultative intracellular pathogen of macrophages and it is phylogenetically related to Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It is a worldwide disease characterized by caseous necrotic capsule-like lesions located mainly in the external lymphonodes and lungs. The infection probably happens by the contact of healthy animals with exuding abscesses of sick ones. Some bovines have been found infected but ovines and caprines are the ones which have an economic and sanitary significance. Both sexes can develop the disease at anytime but animals older than 1 or 2 years are more frequently infected. That disease causes real harmful consequences to these animals turning into a zoopathologic barrier to its economic exploitation. Eighty percent of all caprine herds are located in Brazil’s Northeastern Region and play a special role in the economic support for its people, farmers and manufacturers. The Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis causes high economic losses in that region. The losses range over skin and bones damages, due to abscesses, as well as lower flesh/meat and milk manufacturing production and low reproduction rates. The aim of our study was to analyze the goats humoral immune response induced by the Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis lyophilized live vaccine. The results obtained from these experiments showed that the lyophilized vaccine results in a specific antibody production at doses as high as (or higher than) 109 bacteria cells and that the treatment used in that experiment have not caused lesions in the vaccinated animals.