Contagious Bovine and Caprine Pleuropneumonia: a research community\u2019s recommendations for the development of better vaccines

Angela Colston ,Xiumei Wang,D. Goovaerts ,François Thiaucourt,Hermann Unger,Alain Blanchard,Jeremy Salt,Nicholas Juleff ,Artur Summerfield,Geoffrey Munkombwe Muuka ,Volker Gerdts,Sanjay Vashee,Martin Heller,Vishvanath Nene ,Fabien Labroussaa,Ran Nir-Paz,Flavio Sacchini,Glenn F. Browning,Cynthia L. Baldwin ,Anne Liljander,Joerg Jores

doi:10.1038/s41541-020-00214-2

Abstract

Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP) and contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP) are major infectious diseases of ruminants caused by mycoplasmas in Africa and Asia. In contrast with the limited pathology in the respiratory tract of humans infected with mycoplasmas, CBPP and CCPP are devastating diseases associated with high morbidity and mortality. Beyond their obvious impact on animal health, CBPP and CCPP negatively impact the livelihood and wellbeing of a substantial proportion of livestock-dependent people affecting their culture, economy, trade and nutrition. The causative agents of CBPP and CCPP are Mycoplasma mycoides subspecies mycoides and Mycoplasma capricolum subspecies capripneumoniae, respectively, which have been eradicated in most of the developed world. The current vaccines used for disease control consist of a live attenuated CBPP vaccine and a bacterin vaccine for CCPP, which were developed in the 1960s and 1980s, respectively. Both of these vaccines have many limitations, so better vaccines are urgently needed to improve disease control. In this article the research community prioritized biomedical research needs related to challenge models, rational vaccine design and protective immune responses. Therefore, we scrutinized the current vaccines as well as the challenge-, pathogenicity- and immunity models. We highlight research gaps and provide recommendations towards developing safer and more efficacious vaccines against CBPP and CCPP.

Highlights

Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP) and contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP) are important transboundary diseases of cattle and goats especially in low and middle-income countries
Death rates are much higher for CCPP than for CBPP, increased mortality rates are associated with CBPP when infected cattle are introduced into naive herds[1]
Prevalence data retrieved from the Organization for Animal Health (OIE) specific WAHID interface (Fig. 1 and Supplementary Figure) over the last 10 years suggests that there has not been any progress towards control of CBPP and CCPP, especially on the African continent

Summary

Introduction

Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP) and contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP) are important transboundary diseases of cattle and goats especially in low and middle-income countries. The OIE protocol strains differ in virulence, this was based on an in vivo in-contact recommends 3 mg of the adjuvant saponin per vaccine dose, challenge study employing 2 groups of 2 animals each, which which exceeds standard saponin concentrations (0.3 mg per dose) were infected with different M. mycoides subsp. Using a reverse vaccinology approach researchers identified several candidate vaccine antigens that conferred protective immune responses to experimental CBPP challenge[23].

Results

Conclusion