Vaccination of pigs two weeks before infection significantly reduces transmission of foot-and-mouth disease virus

The objective of this study was to investigate whether and at what time interval could vaccination reduce transmission of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) among pigs. Reduction of virus transmission by vaccination was determined experimentally. Transmission of FMDV was studied in three groups of ten pigs: one non-vaccinated group and two groups that were vaccinated 7 days (−7dpi) and 14 days before inoculation (−14dpi), respectively. Five randomly selected pigs from each group were inoculated with FMDV type O Taiwan, while the other five pigs left in the groups were exposed to the inoculated pigs by direct contact. Clinical signs were recorded, virus isolation and RT-PCR were carried out on oropharyngeal fluid (OPF), and the neutralizing antibody titres and the antibody response against non-structural (NS) proteins of FMDV were determined. No virus transmission was observed in the −14dpi group, whereas virus transmission was observed in all contact pigs affecting both the non-vaccinated and the −7dpi group. The reproduction ratio R in the −14dpi vaccinated group was significantly lower than that of the non-vaccinated group. This study confirms the potential of vaccination as an important tool to reduce transmission of FMDV.