Vaccines for Myxoma Virus

Prevention of myxomatosis is a matter of great importance for industrial/domestic rabbit farms for laboratory and pet rabbits because of its high prevalence and mortality rate. Because sanitary measures are rarely sufficient, an effective vaccination strategy is desired for successful protection against MYXV. Creative Biolabs has advanced virus vaccine technology and offers a wide range of vaccines to meet the needs of our customers.

Myxoma Virus

Myxoma Virus (MYXV) is the type virus of the Leporipoxvirus genus in the Poxviridae family. It is a causative agent of myxomatosis, a lethal systemic disease of the European rabbit. Infected rabbits develop clinical myxomatosis, characterized by pink and edema at the site of inoculation, followed by progressive conjunctivitis and serous/mucus purulent secretion of the eyes and nose. In addition, as the immune system of the infected host gradually collapses, the infection is accompanied by swelling of the anal genital area and bacterial infection in the respiratory tract. Animals usually die 10-14 days after infection (dpi).

Live Attenuated Myxoma Virus Vaccines

• Nonpathogenic leporipoxvirus SFV vaccine - The first live vaccine consists of a heterologous vaccine based on the closely related but non-pathogenic leporipoxvirus Shope fibroma virus (SFV), which is due to its similarity to the intimate antigen of MYXV. SFV originated from the eastern cotton-tailed rabbit and provided considerable cross-protection to MYXV without causing disease in European rabbits older than two weeks. Possible reasons for this attenuated phenotype of SFV may be the partial or complete deletion of several SFV genes found in MYXV, such as those encoding the predicted or confirmed virulence factors.
• Homologous attenuated live vaccines - The second live vaccine consists of a live attenuated vaccine, such as the SG33, Borghi or BTK/RB/84 strain of MYXV. SG33 is a homologous vaccine strain derived from the MYXV Lausanne strain by serial passages on RK13 rabbit kidney and chicken embryo cells at 33°C. The Borghi strain is also a homologous vaccine strain derived from the California strain MSD of MYXV by serial passage in RK13 cells. Attenuation of the Borghi strain may be due to the truncation of Serp2, M-T4 and/or mutation in the M121 gene. These MYXV-based homologous vaccines induce a stronger protective immune response than any existing SFV vaccine, and they induce disease protection at least 4 months after vaccination.

Plasmid-based Subunit Vaccines

DNA vaccine is a new non-infectious poxvirus vaccine. In theory, DNA vaccines have several advantages over live virus vaccines. They are not transmissible and have very few deleterious side effects while still being able to elicit a strong Th1 cell-mediated immune response. Intramuscular DNA vaccination with MYXV genes can induce antigen-specific immune responses of different intensities in rabbits.

With a global team of professionals and an advanced vaccine development platform, Creative Biolabs offers tailor-made specific services, and if you need any help, feel free to contact us.

All of our products can only be used for research purposes. These vaccine ingredients CANNOT be used directly on humans or animals.