Comparative Effects of Deworming, Mineral and Vitamin Supplementation on Humoral Response against Peste de Petits Ruminants Vaccine in Goats

A total of 32 bucks having the same age and sero-negative for PPR were selected for this study. All experimental animals were injected with 1 ml of Pestivac Jovac, (Jordan) live attenuated PPR vaccine via the subcutaneous route with a separate disposable syringe. Goats in group 1 were given 15 grams of mineral mixture for 21 days starting from the day of vaccination. All bucks of group 2 were injected with 5000IU of vitamin A, 2000IU of vitamin D and 20IU of vitamin E every day for consecutive 21 days starting from the day of vaccination. Group 3 goats were dewormed twice the first two days before vaccination than seven days post-vaccination with Fenbendazole at a dose rate of 10mg/kg. Serum, fecal and nasal swabs were collected from all the bucks two days’ prior to vaccination and then after vaccination on every seventh day under aseptic conditions. For the cELISA ID Screen® PPR Competition ELISA kit was used. Those samples which had percentage inhibition (PI) values less than or equal to 50 percent are considered to have protective antibody level and above 60 percent do not have a protective level of antibodies against PPRV. Haemagglutination (HA) test of fecal and nasal samples was performed according to the protocol described by Osman et al. (2007) using 0.6% washed sheep red blood cell suspension prepared in Phosphate buffered saline (pH 7). Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain reaction (RT-PCR) of fecal and nasal samples was performed by QIAJEN one-step RT-PCR Kit (cat. No. 210210) using designed primers of the nucleoprotein (N) gene. The amplified PCR product was confirmed by gel electrophoresis using 1.5% agarose gel. Standard deviation, mean and geometric mean were calculated by using an Excel sheet of Microsoft version 2010 of all the PI values obtained by ELISA plate reader (Multiskan Plus, LabSystem, Finland).

All goats did not have any humoral immunity against PPRV before vaccination in all the four groups as indicated by the percentage inhibition values in Table I. A week after vaccination group 1 presented the highest standard deviation 16.728, percentage inhibition values and group 2 showed a minimum standard deviation 4.29. But, after the second week trend was slightly changed group 3 showed the highest standard deviation 7.62 of percentage inhibition values (Table II). Overall group 2 demonstrated the most consistent results and group 4 presented the most fluctuating results (Table II). According to the results of this study, goats that were given vitamin A, D and E supplementation developed the protective level of humoral immunity against PPRV within a week after vaccination in contrast to the other goats, which developed protective levels of humoral immunity against PPRV after two weeks. After one week of vaccination, all goats of group 2 developed enough antibody titer to give protection against PPRV. In contrast, only 50 percent of goats of group 1 and 3 goats and 25 percent of group 4 goats developed the protective level of humoral immunity against PPRV. Cipriano et al. (1982) also suggested that vitamin E supplementation boosts the humoral immune response in calves and lambs. Mora et al. (2008) described the role of vitamin A and D in the enhancement of innate and adaptive immune response. Deworming of goats did not increase antibody titer significantly as compared to goats which were supplemented with vitamins and minerals. These results were unlike the results of Undiandeye et al. (2014). Undiandeye et al. (2014) suggested that deworming in goats can boost the immune response PPR vaccine in goats. The reason for different results can be due to a lower burden of endoparasites in animals before the start of the trial. The results of the current study are similar to the study conducted by Hanssen et al. (2013), in which deworming decreased the immunoglobulin levels in Raptor species.

RT-PCR and HA test of fecal and nasal samples taken from all experimental animals before vaccination and every week after vaccination gave negative results regardless of any group. The present study shows that goats vaccinated by live attenuated PPRV strain Niger 75/1 via the subcutaneous route do not transmit the virus to their surroundings by the nasal or fecal route. These results are similar to the study conducted by Zahur et al. (2014) in goats and sheep aged from 5 months to 7 years.

Humoral immune response in goats was shown to be triggered to develop more antibodies against the PPR vaccine in less time by supplementation of vitamins and minerals.

We are thankful to Dr. Muhammad Javed Arshad, Dr. Muhammad Afzal, and all the support staff at Virology Laboratory at the National Veterinary Laboratory.

The authors have declared no conflict of interest.