Comparative efficacy of modified-live and inactivated vaccines in boosting responses to bovine respiratory syncytial virus following neonatal mucosal priming of beef calves

Bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV) is the leading cause of viral pneumonia in calves, making young passively immune calves candidates for vaccination, and raising issues concerning boosting of neonatally primed responses. To address this, 18, 2-month-old Angus-cross passively immune beef heifer calves that had been primed at birth with a combination viral intranasal vaccine were administered either a parenteral combination vaccine containing modified-live (MLV) BRSV or a similar vaccine containing inactivated BRSV. At 6 months of age, these calves and 2 controls that received only the MLV at 2 months of age were challenged with BRSV via aerosol. Two calves, 1 control, and 1 MLV-boosted, developed severe respiratory disease and required euthanasia; the remaining calves developed no or mild respiratory disease and recovered. Calves that received the inactivated booster had significantly higher arterial oxygen concentrations on Day 7 after challenge and had anamnestic BRSV-specific IgG and neutralizing antibodies after challenge; the MLV-boosted calves did not. These data suggest that adjuvanted inactivated parenteral BRSV vaccines administered at 2 months of age may provide better boosting for neonatally mucosally primed calves.