Epitope selection and their placement for increased virus neutralization in a novel vaccination strategy for porcine epidemic diarrhea virus utilizing the Hepatitis B virus core antigen.

•Hepatitis B core antigen (HBcAg) protein with PEDV epitopes can assemble into virus like particles.•Epitope placement within HBcAg can affect the immunogenicity of a vaccine.•The YSNIGVCK antigen from PEDV has a strong correlation with virus neutralization.