Project Number: 5430-32000-001-14
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Aug 01, 2010
End Date: Sep 23, 2012

Objective:
The objective of this cooperative research is to assist in continuation of the RVF MP-12 duration of immunity study and another ongoing project to develop a mouse and/or hamster model for the direct comparison of attenuated and subunit Rift Valley fever (RVF) vaccine candidates.

Approach:
Sheep that have been vaccinated with Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV) MP-12 will continue to be maintained and duration of imunity determine by virus neutralization and competitive Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). A number of attenuated vaccine candidates are being considered to control RVF. Evaluation of these candidate using the target species sheep, goats and cattle is very expensive. Therefore, the generation of a hamster model for the direct comparison of attenuated vaccine candidates would be beneficial. Through another specific cooperative agreement, mice or hamsters will be vaccinated with available candidate attenuated vaccines (MP-12, Clone 13, and/or double deletion mutant) and challenged with a virulent RVF virus. This agreement provides additional support for characterization of the hamster host immune response will characterized both by production of neutralizing immunity and by production of 2-4 standard immunological markers. The challenge studies will be repeated three times to increase the sample size and potentially the number immunological markers evaluated.