Conjunctival and intramuscular vaccination of pigs with a live avirulent strain of Salmonella cholerae-suis.

An avirulent mutant strain of Salmonella cholerae-suis was cloned for resistance to streptomycin and nalidixic acid. The mutant strain 33-13 also was used because of its avirulence and immunogenicity in mice. Weaned pigs were vaccinated with live strain 33-13; 5 pigs were vaccinated by conjunctivally administered 5.5 X 10(7) organisms (low dose), 5 were conjunctivally administered 5.5 X 10(9) organisms (high dose), and 5 pigs were administered 5.5 X 10(9) organisms (high dose) IM. Transient fever and transient fecal shedding of the vaccine strain developed in pigs vaccinated IM, but not in 2 groups of pigs vaccinated conjunctivally. After intratracheal administration of virulent strain 38-9, nonvaccinated control pigs (n = 9) developed persistent high fever, anorexia, bacteremia, diarrhea, and fecal shedding of strain 38-9, whereas vaccinated pigs remained afebrile and clinically normal. Nonvaccinated and uninfected sentinel pigs (n = 8) were kept in units of 2 pigs with each group of experimental pigs, and remained healthy throughout the experiment. Thirteen vaccinated and 7 nonvaccinated control pigs were killed 42 days after vaccination, and 2 vaccinated, 2 nonvaccinated, and 8 sentinel control pigs were killed 58 days after vaccination. Ten organs were evaluated by quantitative bacteriology on necropsy of all pigs for the presence of vaccine strain 33-13, and for virulent strain 38-9. Strain 33-13 was not found. Lung and liver, lesions were found in most of the nonvaccinated control pigs, with a high frequency of recovery of large numbers of strain 38-9 from the mesenteric lymph nodes, lungs, liver, and ileum.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)