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The recent emergence and circulation of the A/ASIA/G-VII (A/G-VII) lineage of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) in the Middle East has resulted in the development of homologous vaccines to ensure susceptible animals are sufficiently protected against clinical disease. However, a second serotype A lineage called A/ASIA/Iran-05 (A/IRN/05) continues to circulate in the region and it is therefore imperative to ensure vaccine strains used will protect against both lineages. In addition, for FMDV vaccine banks that usually hold a limited number of strains, it is necessary to include strains with a broad antigenic coverage. To assess the cross protective ability of an A/G-VII emergency vaccine (formulated at 43 (95% CI 8–230) PD₅₀/dose as determined during homologous challenge), we performed a heterologous potency test according to the European Pharmacopoeia design using a field isolate from the A/IRN/05 lineage as the challenge virus. The estimated heterologous potency in this study was 2.0 (95% CI 0.4–6.0) PD₅₀/dose, which is below the minimum potency recommended by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). Furthermore, the cross-reactive antibody titres against the heterologous challenge virus were poor (≤log₁₀ 0.9), even in those cattle that had received the full dose of vaccine. The geometric mean r₁-value was 0.2 (95% CI 0.03–0.8), similar to the potency ratio of 0.04 (95% CI 0.004–0.3). Vaccination decreased viraemia and virus excretion compared to the unvaccinated controls. Our results indicate that this A/G-VII vaccine does not provide sufficient protection against viruses belonging to the A/IRN/05 lineage and therefore the A/G-VII vaccine strain cannot replace the A/IRN/05 vaccine strain but could be considered an additional strain for use in vaccines and antigen banks. Full article

Since 2015, outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) in the Middle East have been caused by a new emerging viral lineage, A/ASIA/G-VII. Invitro vaccine matching data indicated that this virus poorly matched (low r₁-value) with vaccines that were being used in the region as well as most other commercially available vaccines. The aim of this study was to assess the performance of two candidate vaccines against challenge with a representative field virus from the A/ASIA/G-VII lineage. The results from an initial full dose protection study provided encouraging data for the A/MAY/97 vaccine, while the A₂₂/IRQ/64 vaccine only protected 2/7 vaccinated animals. In view of these promising results, this vaccine was tested in a potency test (PD₅₀) experiment in which 5 cattle were vaccinated with a full dose, 5 cattle with a 1/3 dose and 5 cattle with a 1/9 dose of vaccine. At 21 days post vaccination these vaccinated cattle and 3 control cattle were challenged intradermolingually with a field isolate from the A/ASIA/G-VII lineage. The intra-serotype heterologous potency test resulted in an intra-serotype heterologous potency of 6.5 PD₅₀/dose. These data support previous studies showing that a high potency emergency vaccine can protect against clinical disease when challenged with a heterologous strain of the same serotype, indicating that not only the r₁-value of the vaccine, but also the homologous potency of a vaccine should be taken into account when advising vaccines to control an outbreak. Full article