Development of a cross-protective subunit cocktail vaccine against diverse serotypes of Glaesserella parasuis infection in pigs.

Abstract

Glässer's disease, caused by Glaesserella parasuis (GPS), causes substantial economic losses in the swine industry worldwide. This situation is largely attributable to the poor cross-protective efficacy of currently available vaccines. In this study, a multi-antigen cocktail subunit vaccine against GPS infection was developed. In silico antigenicity analysis, the immunoprotective efficacy, and antibody titers of 14 GPS antigens were assessed in a murine model. Finally, VacJ, PtsG, and GAPDH were identified as the component of the cocktail vaccine, with Gel-01 as the optimal adjuvant. Immunization of the cocktail vaccine induced robust humoral and cellular immune responses. The vaccine conferred effective cross-protection against lethal-dose GPS4 and GPS5 infections in mice. As supported by a pilot study, it also demonstrated favorable immunoprotective efficacy against GPS infection in piglets. Furthermore, immune sera from vaccinated mice significantly inhibited the growth of GPS4 and GPS5. Overall, these results suggested that the subunit cocktail vaccine established in this study exhibits great potential for preventing GPS infection under experimental conditions, and further large‑scale pig trials are still required to validate its practical applicability in field production.