Streptococcus suis is a serious pathogen in the pig industry with zoonotic potential. With respect to the current effort to reduce antibiotic use in animals, a prophylactic measure is needed to control the disease burden. Unfortunately, immunization against streptococcal pathogens is challenging due to nature of the interaction between the pathogen and the host immune system, but vaccines based on conjugates of capsular polysaccharide (CPS) and carrier protein were proved to be efficient. The main obstacle of these vaccines is manufacturing cost, limiting their use in animals. In this work, we tested an experimental vaccine against Streptococcus suis serotype 2 based on capsular polysaccharide conjugated to chicken ovalbumin (OVA) and compared its immunogenicity and protectivity with a vaccine based on CRM197 conjugate. Ovalbumin was selected as a cheap alternative to recombinant carrier proteins widely used in vaccines for human use. We found that the ovalbumin-based experimental vaccine successfully induced immune response in pigs, and the IgG antibody response was even higher than after immunization with capsular polysaccharide-CRM197 conjugate. Protectivity of vaccination against infection was evaluated in the challenge experiment and was found promising for both conjugates.

Department of Experimental Biology Faculty of Science Masaryk University 611 37 Brno Czech Republic

Department of Histology and Embryology Faculty of Medicine University of Ostrava 701 03 Ostrava Czech Republic

Department of Morphology Physiology and Animal Genetics Faculty of AgriSciences Mendel University in Brno 613 00 Brno Czech Republic

State Veterinary Institute Jihlava 586 01 Jihlava Czech Republic

Veterinary Research Institute 621 00 Brno Czech Republic

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