Evaluation of inactivated bovine ephemeral fever vaccine in hamster as a model animal

Cattle constitute a well documented, but expensive and cumbersome culture system for bovine ephemeral fever vaccine evaluation. Therefore, the search for a laboratory model animal is in need. In this study, a comparison was held between cattle and Syrian golden hamster for evaluation of locally produced bovine ephemeral fever (BEF), binary ethylenimine (BEI) inactivated, aluminum hydroxide gel adjuvanted vaccine. The results achieved in this study indicated that the level of antibodies by virus neutralization, ELISA and quantitative agar gel precipitaions techniques in cattle vaccinated with inactivated vaccine and boostered two weeks post preliminary vaccination reached 1.85 log10 three months post preliminary vaccination, while the protective level appeared since third week in a titre of 1.2 log10. The determination of antibody titers in hamster and by the application of the same system of vaccination and by the use of same serological techniques showed a satisfactory level of protection since third week post preliminary vaccination (1.2 log10), and this proved that the hamster is a suitable laboratory animal for the evaluation of inactivated BEF vaccine.