Objective:
The overall goal of this research is to develop the basic knowledge and tools necessary to dissect the quality of the immune response and pathogenesis of foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV), vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), and porcine respiratory and reproductive syndrome virus (PRRSV) in swine so as to produce improved disease control strategies.

Approach:
Collaborative studies will be conducted to produce reagents and develop technologies to examine the innate and adaptive immue response and examine the pathogenesis to the above infectious agents. Knowledge derived from these studies will be utilized to enhance and develop new disease control strategies. Efforts will initially be focused on producing reagents including monoclonal antibodies against a number of swine cytokines. This project will also include microscopic analysis of the bovine and porcine integrins that are the cellular receptors for FMDV. Collaborative efforts are to be expanded to include examination of the entry events in viral infection in cells and an examination of viral replication complexes. Determination of the isotype and purify the monoclonal antibodies and identify at least two distinct antibodies that can be used in a capture ELISA for detection of porcine interferon beta in our ongoing FMDV-siwne antiviral/vaccine studies.