Development and experimental evaluation of formalin killed vaccine for prevention of swine erysipelas outbreaks in North East India

Abstract

Erysipelothrix rhusiopathaie, a gram positive bacterium is responsible for a lethal disease popularly known as swine erysipelas in swine throughout the pig rearing countries including India. Being a zoonotic disease it is not only a concern from swine industry but also for human health. In case of outbreak in pigs, it causes huge mortality in unvaccinated population. Though most of the further loss can be controlled by penicillin group antibiotics but the disease can cause devastating loss to the farm in case of delay in diagnosis and treatment. Though there is vaccine available in global market but for Indian pig industry the vaccine is not available. We have been able to show the presence of the pathogen in the state of Meghalaya through serological, molecular, outbreak investigations in earlier studies and the disease is well present in other pig growing states of India including North East. The present study is focused on development of an effective formalin killed vaccine for regional preparedness against the dreaded pathogen. The prepared vaccine was able to show seroconversion with as high as three times in the experimental pigs following a single booster in the pilot scale study. The same vaccine protocol can be used for preparation of vaccine in regional laboratories including North east states of India where pig husbandry is one of the main livelihood sources of farmers using the ATCC strains as used in the current experiment or their own indigenous isolates.