Use of DNA vaccination for determination of onset of adaptive immunity in rainbow trout fry

Vaccine producers often recommend a minimum size of 5g for vaccination of rainbow trout, but implementation of prophylactic vaccination in smaller sized fish would be an advantage for several infectious diseases. To implement a cost efficient vaccination strategy, it is important to know the duration and nature of the protective immunity induced by the vaccines in the fish.

The present work aimed at determination of the smallest size at which specific immunity could be induced in rainbow trout fry by DNA vaccination against viral haemorrhagic septicaemia (VHS). Earlier experiments revealed that intramuscular injection of the DNA vaccine encoding the viral glycoprotein G induced protective immunity to VHS in rainbow trout fry of 0.5g.However, the vaccine is known to induce both innate and adaptive protection.

The present work therefore aimed at determination of which type of protection the DNA vaccine induced in such early life stages of rainbow trout. Vaccination trials were performed with fry at average sizes of 0.25 g and 0.5 g respectively and included both the homologous VHSV G-gene vaccine and a heterologous DNA vaccine encoding the G-protein of infectious haematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV).

The fish were challenged by immersion at different times post vaccination. Protective immunity was induced in both sizes of fish, but whereas clear-cut specific protection was evident in the fish vaccinated at 0.5g, the results suggested that the protection in the fish vaccinated at 0.25 g was mainly due to innate cross-reactive antiviral mechanisms of shorter duration.

The critical size for induction of an adaptive immune response in rainbow trout to this type of vaccination thus appears to be between 0.25 and 0.5g. This work was supported by the “DAFINET” grant from the Danish Council for Strategic Research.