The serological response induced by three inactivated commercial vaccines against bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) was evaluated in calves immunized three times (days 0, 30 and 180) and examined at different intervals after vaccination. Thirty days after the second vaccination, 74.5% (70/94) of the calves had developed neutralizing antibodies titers against BVDV-1 and 52.1% (49/94) against BVDV-2. The geometric mean titers (GMT) and the number of animals with antibodies to BVDV-1 were 109.3(32/36); 54.6(22/28) and 25.5(16/30) for vaccines A, B e C, respectively and 19(27/36), 42.3(12/28) and 18.4(10/30) to BVDV-2. The antibody titers decreased by day 180, when 31.9%(30/94) of the calves showed no neutralizing activity against BVDV-1 and 63.8%(60/94) to BVDV-2. At that time, the GMTs and the number of animals seropositive to BVDV-1 were 28.3 (30/36), 28.3(20/28) and 16.1(14/30); and to BVDV-2 were 16.8(18/36), 21.6(10/28) and 28.3(6/30) for vaccines A, B and C, respectively. After the third dosis (day 180), the antibody titers to BVDV-1 increased significantly in all groups whereas a significant increase in BVDV-2 titers was observed only for vaccine A. At day 210, GMTs and the number of positive animals to BVDV-1 were 104.8(23/24), 50.3(24/26) and 43.7(24/28) and to BVDV-2 were 33.4(23/24), 23.3(22/26) and 15.7(22/28) for vaccines A, B and C. The neutralizing activity against BVDV-1 was higher than to BVDV-2 in all groups at day 210. Sera from five seropositive animals of each vaccine group were tested against four Brazilian BVDV-1 and two BVDV-2 isolates. In addition to the low and moderate titers, the cross-neutralization assays revealed a highly variable neutralizing activity against the Brazilian field isolates. These results demonstrated that the vaccination did not induce an adequate serological response in most animals, mainly due to the high antigenic variability of BVDV.
bovine viral diarrhea virus; BVDV; vaccines; antigenic diversity
