Submitted to: American Association of Swine Practitioners Proceedings
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: September 1, 1997
Publication Date: N/A
Technical Abstract:
What immune factors enable swine to resist infections? A vast array of information on this topic has been accumulated, especially in the last decade. This review will address our current knowledge of how antibody responses develop, how cellular immune responses are localized and regulated, how modern gene mapping studies may lead to novel resistance mechanisms, and how some intracellular proteins, the cytokines, signal and stimulate both antibody and cellular immune responses. As noted in several recent reviews, knowledge of the humoral and cellular effector mechanisms that result in protective immune responses against swine infectious diseases should enable researchers and clinicians to design better therapeutics and to develop novel vaccine strategies. This review has highlighted how knowledge gained in the last decade will enable researchers and clinicians to probe the details of swine immune responses to infectious agents. Comparisons of genetically resistant and susceptible swine will highlight new approaches to disease control. The increasing availability of reagents for detailed immune studies will mean that scientists can fully dissect the cellular and humoral factors that regulate protective swine disease responses. Such studies will result in new methods of vaccine development and design and in novel immunomodulators and biotherapeutics to prevent infectious diseases.
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