Efficacy of a canarypox-vectored recombinant vaccine expressing the hemagglutinin gene of equine influenza H3N8 virus in the protection of ponies from viral challenge.

Objective: To determine onset and duration of immunity provided by a 2- or 3-dose series of a new canarypox-vectored recombinant vaccine for equine influenza virus (rCP-EIV vaccine) expressing the hemagglutinin genes of influenza H3N8 virus strains A/eq/Kentucky/94 and A/eq/Newmarket/2/93 in ponies.

Animals: Forty-nine 1- to 3-year-old male Welsh Mountain Ponies that were seronegative for equine influenza virus.

Procedures: Vaccinated and control ponies were challenged with aerosolized influenza virus A/eq/Sussex/89 (H3N8), representative of the Eurasian lineage of circulating influenza viruses.

Comparison of genome segments 2, 7 and 10 of bluetongue viruses serotype 2 for differentiation between field isolates and the vaccine strain.

Bluetongue (BT) virus serotype 2 (BTV 2) was first confirmed in Tunisia in February 2000 and has since spread northward and westward, infecting several other countries and islands, including Corsica, where clinical disease was reported in October 2000. BT was again reported on the Island in July 2001, some six months after a vaccination campaign against BTV 2. The molecular relationship between isolates of the BTV 2 Corsican wild-type viruses from 2000 and 2001, and the attenuated BTV 2 vaccine were determined by comparing corresponding sequences of genome segments 2, 7 and 10 with each other and with already published sequences available in the genome database.