Attenuated forms of bovine viral diarrhea virus
AssigneePfizer Inc.
InventorsXuemei Cao, Michael G. Sheppard
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Abstract
The present invention is directed to a method of producing attenuated forms of bovine viral diarrhea (BVD) virus by mutating the Npro protease gene. The invention includes the attenuated viruses made by this method, antibodies generated using these viruses, and vaccines that can be used for immunizing cattle.
Claims5
A method of modifying an isolated wild type BVD viral genome for use in a vaccine, comprising mutating the genomic nucleic acid of an isolated wild type virus to inactivate the Npro protease gene.
A method of attenuating a wild type BVD virus for use in a vaccine, comprising mutating the genomic nucleic acid of said virus to inactivate the Npro protease gene, wherein attenuation is accomplished by a procedure comprising:
- (a) isolating said wild type BVD virus;
- (b) cloning the genomic nucleic acid of the isolated virus of step (a);
- (c) mutating the cloned genomic nucleic acid of step (b) so as to inactivate the Npro protease gene;
- and
- (d) transforming or transfecting the mutated nucleic acid of step (c) into a host cell to produce attenuated virus.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.