Abstract
The effectiveness of a vaccine preserved for emergency use in Japan was analyzed under experimental conditions using cows and pigs in order to retrospectively
evaluate the effectiveness of the emergency vaccination performed in the 2010 epidemic in Japan. Cows and pigs were administered a vaccine preserved for
emergency use in Japan at 3 or 30 days before virus infection (dbv) and were subsequently infected with the foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) O/JPN/2010,
which was isolated in the 2010 epidemic in Japan. All animals vaccinated at 30 dbv and one of three pigs vaccinated at 3 dbv showed no vesicular lesions during
the experimental period. The virus titers and viral RNA loads obtained from clinical samples were lower in the vaccinated cows than in the non-vaccinated cows.
The viral excretion periods were shorter in the vaccinated cows than in the non-vaccinated cows. In contrast, in the vaccinated pigs, the virus titers and viral
RNA loads obtained from the samples, except for those obtained from sera, were not decreased significantly, and the viral excretion periods were not
sufficiently shortened. These results suggest that the vaccine can protect against clinical signs of infection by the FMDV O/JPN/2010 in animals; however, it
should be noted that in vaccinated and infected animals, especially pigs, clinical samples, such as saliva and nasal swabs, may contain excreted viruses, even
if no clinical signs were exhibited.