Project Number: 1940-32000-057-28
Project Type: Nonfunded Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: May 01, 2010
End Date: Apr 30, 2014

Objective:
The objective of this collaborative research project is to accelerate the development of vaccine technology for two critical cattle diseases; foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and east coast fever (ECF), impacting smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. We will utilize vaccine development technologies which assess breed specific host responses to pathogens utilizing existing genome sequences for two targeted pathogens and the genome sequence of the host species, Bos taurus. ARS, PIADC will lead the effort to analyze the immune response to FMDV infection in cattle as well as the analysis of FMD vaccine performance.

Approach:
The bovine immune response to FMDV infection will be assessed through bioinformatics, high-throughput sequencing, peptide synthesis, proteomics and ultimately the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) tetramer technology or "tetramers". ARS will expand the present collaboration with the University of Vermont to achieve a more technically sophisticated and informative analysis of the immune response of cattle to FMDV infection and to vaccination with virus vectored FMD vaccines. This is made possible by utilizing the genetically defined animals from the University of Vermont's herds of Holstein cattle, or from the University of Vermont Dairy Center of Excellence cooperator herds.