Immunological responses to vaccination following experimental Lawsonia intracellularis virulent challenge in pigs

Although a live attenuated vaccine has been used extensively to provide immunity against porcine proliferative enteropathy (PE) caused by Lawsonia intracellularis, the nature of the protective response is an area of considerable interest for the control of PE. Two trials investigated immune responses in pigs after oral and intramuscular (IM) vaccination followed by virulent L. intracellularis challenge. After an oral vaccination with 105.9 TCID50 organisms, significantly increased serum and mucosal secretions of IgM, IgG and higher mucosal TNF-α and TGF-β1 were detected by day 17, together with a trend towards higher levels of IFN-γ and IL-6. Pigs vaccinated IM produced elevated serum antibody titres but mucosal immune responses were not detected. After challenge with virulent L. intracellularis, non-vaccinated control pigs had higher PE lesion scores and excreted significantly higher numbers of L. intracellularis in faeces than the vaccinated pigs. Reduced intestinal pathology and faecal L. intracellularis shedding were evident in the vaccinated groups. The results indicated that protection was associated with mucosal cytokine and specific IgG and IgA responses after vaccination and that systemic antibody responses were boosted following challenge. However in the search for an immune correlate with protection, a causal association was not evident from a kinetic analysis of immune parameters in serum, ileal pathology and faecal shedding.