Eradicating Chlamydia Infections in Cattle with Herd-Specific Autovaccines

1. Infections with Chlamydiae can be effectively eradicated using herd specific autovaccines in cattle populations N OLTE , O.* , W EISS , H.-E., & S ONNTAG , H.-G. corresponding author: Dr. Oliver Nolte Hygiene Institute, Dept. Hygiene & Medical Microbiology Im Neuenheimer Feld 324, 69120 Heidelberg/Germany E-mail: Oliver_Nolte@med.uni-heidelberg.de Tel.: +49/6221/567812 Fax.: +49/6221/565627 Third Annual Conference on Vaccine Research

2. Objective : Therapeutic treatment of dairy cows infected with Chlamydia (psittaci) Normally 30-80% of a herd can be infected. The rate of abortion reaches up to 30% if Chlamydia infections are common in a herd while the usual rate is below 1 %. background Amongst the clinical manifestations are mastitis, arthritis and conjunctivitis as well as pneumoniae in calves. In sheep herds epidemics are common, in cattle populations epidemics are reported frequently . The economical loss is estimated at 1000-1500 $ per abort!

3. Standard treatment (Germany) for Chlamydia infected cows : antibiotic treatment using tetracycline i.m. tetracycline sticks deposited in the uterus uterine flushes using 5% iodine in ethanol effectivity varies expensive

4. Definition : autovaccine or autogenous vaccine therapeutic vaccine manufactured from a disease causing pathogenic micro-organism strain and patient specific in veterinary medicine often herd or flock specific therapeutic treatment of ongoing infections immunogenic (?) modulation of the patients immune system. intended to stimulate the immune system, not to hit the micro- organism directlytherefore no development of resistance highly specific , independent of antigenic variability cheap to manufacture no governmental approval required

5. Method : Autovaccines were prepared* from index case (i.e. abortion caused by Chlamydia spec. ). herds were treated with the herd specific autovaccine four times (one dose on every 5 th day). Randomly chosen Chlamydia positive cows were examined in detail cervical swabs were taken from the chosen cows after completion of autovaccination (i.e., day 28 after 1 st dose of autovaccine) to check for the presence of Chlamydiae * patent pending DE/PCT/EP cervical swabs ( obtained from herds in which the index case was recorded ) were screened by Stamp staining of inclusion bodies procedure

6. routine screening method in veterinary diagnostics* to check for the presence of Chlamydiae both forms of the Chlamydia are stained intensively red whereas the background is in light green. Stamp staining is also good for staining of Coxiella , both micro- organisms, Chlamydiae and Coxiella differ in their morphology * one of the methods recommended by the Bundesministerium fr Ernhrung, Landwirtschaft und Forsten [Ministry of food, agriculture and forestry] (order BGBl. I S. 1178; September 1999) (cervical) swabs are smeared on slides and subsequently stained using carbolfuchsin (Ziehl`s stain)1% acetic acid0.2% Malachite Green. Stamp staining

7. Diagrammatic representation of disease state, immunisation schedule and sampling of blood. ( ) denotes subcutaneous/intranasal or intravaginal immunisation, ( ) and denotes blood/serum sample * often suffering from metritis and/or reduced fertility 1 week Chlamydia positive* uterine swabs (cervix) & Stamp staining Outline autovaccination

8. overall amount of dairy cows autovaccinated to treat chlamydial infections overall amount of dairy cows autovaccinated to treat chlamydial infections 8 veterinarians involved 30 herds were treated ap. 2500 individuals autovaccinated

9. subcutaneous intravaginal intranasal autovaccine placebo Chlamydia negative* 2 5 19 2 9 11 route of application route of application * as determined using Stamp staining =48 (out of five different herds) Chlamydia positive*

10. subcutaneous intravaginal intranasal autovaccine placebo 2 5 19 2 9 11 * as determined using Stamp staining 2 2 1 1 5 2 1 8 2 9 Results (28 days after start of autovaccination) Results (28 days after start of autovaccination) =48 (out of five different herds) Chlamydia negative* Chlamydia positive* 17 2

11. 5 groups of animals =48 Chlamydia positive autovaccine: 41 negative after av: 36 =87.8% Chlamydia positive placebo: 5 negative after pl: 0 Chlamydia negative autovaccine: 2 negative after av: 1 Chlamydia negative placebo: 2 negative after pl: 0

12. day 0 day 7 day 28 0 20 40 subcutan (n=19)* intranasal (n=11)** intravaginal (n=9)** antibody titer in micro-CBA mean antibody titer +S.E. Results : Serum antibodies against Chlamydia psittaci antigen in micro complement binding assay positive control 1:40 negative control <1:10 * belonging to 3 different herds ** belonging to 2 different herds P <0.05

13. Conclusions : Autovaccines seems to be a useful and effective method for the treatment of Chlamydia infection. The observed side effects were minor, only after intravaginal application cows showed an increased sensitivity. No serious side effects were observed. Autovaccines are cheap and can be given even to pregnant cows. Examination of uterus swabs revealed that more than 87% of autovaccinated cows were Chlamydia negative afterwards. The veterinarians reported decline to normal abortion rate and normal metritis incidence in herds treated with the autovaccine . However, the immunological background remains unknown.