Vaccination of cattle with the Babesia bovis sexual-stage protein HAP2 abrogates parasite transmission by Rhipicephalus microplus ticks
Silva, Marta G., Bastos, Reginaldo G., Laughery, Jacob M., Alzan, Heba F., Rathinasamy, Vignesh A., Cooke, Brian M., and Suarez, Carlos E. (2023) Vaccination of cattle with the Babesia bovis sexual-stage protein HAP2 abrogates parasite transmission by Rhipicephalus microplus ticks. NPJ Vaccines, 8. 140.
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Abstract
The apicomplexan parasite Babesia bovis is responsible for bovine babesiosis, a poorly controlled tick-borne disease of global impact. The widely conserved gametocyte protein HAPLESS2/GCS1 (HAP2) is uniquely expressed on the surface of B. bovis sexual stage parasites and is a candidate for transmission-blocking vaccines (TBV). Here, we tested whether vaccination of calves with recombinant HAP2 (rHAP2) interferes with the transmission of B. bovis by competent ticks. Calves vaccinated with rHAP2 (n = 3), but not control animals (n = 3) developed antibodies specific to the vaccine antigen. Vaccinated and control animals were infested with Rhipicephalus microplus larvae and subsequently infected with virulent blood stage B. bovis parasites by needle inoculation, with all animals developing clinical signs of acute babesiosis. Engorged female ticks fed on the infected calves were collected for oviposition, hatching, and obtention of larvae. Transmission feeding was then conducted using pools of larvae derived from ticks fed on rHAP2-vaccinated or control calves. Recipient calves (n = 3) exposed to larvae derived from control animals, but none of the recipient calves (n = 3) challenged with larvae from ticks fed on rHAP2-vaccinated animals, developed signs of acute babesiosis within 11 days after tick infestation. Antibodies against B. bovis antigens and parasite DNA were found in all control recipient animals, but not in any of the calves exposed to larvae derived from HAP2-vaccinated animals, consistent with the absence of B. bovis infection via tick transmission. Overall, our results are consistent with the abrogation of parasite tick transmission in rHAP2-vaccinated calves, confirming this antigen as a prime TBV candidate against B. bovis.
| Item ID: | 80814 |
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| Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
| ISSN: | 2059-0105 |
| Copyright Information: | This is a U.S. Government work and not under copyright protection in the US; foreign copyright protection may apply 2023. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Funders: | Australian Research Council (ARC) |
| Projects and Grants: | ARC DPI180102584 |
| Date Deposited: | 15 Feb 2024 01:51 |
| FoR Codes: | 30 AGRICULTURAL, VETERINARY AND FOOD SCIENCES > 3009 Veterinary sciences > 300906 Veterinary immunology @ 40% 32 BIOMEDICAL AND CLINICAL SCIENCES > 3204 Immunology > 320404 Cellular immunology @ 20% 30 AGRICULTURAL, VETERINARY AND FOOD SCIENCES > 3009 Veterinary sciences > 300909 Veterinary parasitology @ 40% |
| SEO Codes: | 10 ANIMAL PRODUCTION AND ANIMAL PRIMARY PRODUCTS > 1004 Livestock raising > 100401 Beef cattle @ 50% 10 ANIMAL PRODUCTION AND ANIMAL PRIMARY PRODUCTS > 1004 Livestock raising > 100402 Dairy cattle @ 50% |
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