Objective:
The overall goal of this research project is to develop the basic knowledge and molecular tools necessary to dissect the quality of the immune response and pathogenesis of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus (FMDV) and Porcine Respiratory and Reproductive Syndrome Virus (PRRSV) in order to advance and improve disease control strategies. In SCA 2-245 we jointly developed reagents and assays to assess the role of specific cytokines in enhancing/directing the appropriate protective immune responses against infectious viral diseases. Promising results from UConn in-vitro and in mice has led to large animal studies at PIADC to further demonstrate efficacy. To build on the results produced thus far, we plan to conduct further tests to demonstrate enhanced protective response of current or newly developed vaccines and additional pathogenesis studies are planned.

Approach:
Collaborative studies will be conducted to produce reagents and develop technologies to examine the innate immune response and examine the pathogenesis of FMDV and PRRSV. Knowledge derived from these studies will be utlized to enhance and develop new disease control strategies. Efforts will initially be focused on producing and characterizing reagents including monoclonal antibodies against a number of swine cytokines. In addition, techniques such as confocal microscopy imaging and similar techniques will be jointly developed and applied to study FMD and PRRS pathogenesis.