Morris Animal Foundation (MAF) Pfizer Animal Health (PAH) Veterinary Fellowship

I plan to probe an expression library of L. intracellularis with sera from equine cases to establish a directory of immunoreactive proteins expressed during infection. These recombinant proteins will then be compared as antigens in ELISA's for assay of post-infection equine serum antibody. The aim is to replace the existing antibody assay that requires use of infected monolayers, which is difficult to reproduce and expensive. A comparison of immune responses to each recombinant protein using ELISA and T cell proliferation of horses that become subclinically infected with those that develop severe cases will then be undertaken to attempt to establish a correlation between responses to specific Lawsonia immunogens and protection. The availability of an ELISA that targets a protective immunogen would be valuable in vaccine efficacy studies and in immunodiagnosis. 200908281421