The effect of vaccination with a live attenuated strain of Japanese encephalitis virus on stillbirths in swine in Taiwan

Abstract

Since an excellent candidate strain (M) for live virus vaccination of swine against Japanese encephalitis was developed, a number of large vaccination programmes have been implemented in Japan with the aim of controlling Japanese encephalitis epidemics in man by reducing the population size of nonimmune swine. Encouraging results have been obtained but no studies have been made on the benefits of live-virus vaccination to the industry. In order to determine the effect of vaccination upon the number of stillbirths occurring in the Japanese encephalitis post-emergence season, a total of 74 vaccinated, and subsequently mated, gilts at a large breeding farm in subtropical Taiwan were subjected to follow-up observations in comparison with a control group. The total incidence of litter stillbirths in the vaccinated group (1/74) was significantly lower than that in the control group (21/68). Over 92% of the newborn piglets from the vaccinated gilts were healthy, while 31.6-54.1% of the newborn piglets in the control groups were stillborn. The litter size of vaccinated gilts was larger than that of the control gilts. The vaccine was shown by tests in 22 swine to have an adequate degree of safety. Four weeks after vaccination with either 10(5.6) or 10(8.0) smicLD(50) of virus, all the swine developed an adequate level of antibody. The results indicate that live virus vaccination could benefit the industry in addition to achieving the main aim of controlling Japanese encephalitis viraemia in swine.