title: Pregnancy boosts vaccine-induced Bovine Neonatal Pancytopenia-associated alloantibodies.
abstract: Although maternal vaccination is generally considered to be safe, the occurrence of Bovine Neonatal Pancytopenia (BNP) in cattle shows that maternal vaccination may pose a risk to the offspring. Pregsure BVD-induced maternal alloantibodies cause BNP in newborn calves. The occurrence of BNP years after last Pregsure BVD vaccination indicates that alloantibody levels may remain high in dams. Since pregnancy induces alloantibodies we hypothesized that pregnancy boosts the vaccine-induced alloantibody response. Alloantibody levels in Pregsure BVD-vaccinated dams increased from conception towards the end of gestation and declined after parturition. In parallel, BVDV-antibody levels remained constant, indicating that there is specific boosting of alloantibodies. Since the rise in alloantibodies coincides with pregnancy and other alloantigen sources were excluded, we concluded that fetal alloantigens expressed during pregnancy boost the alloimmune response in the dam. These results help explain why BNP cases occur even years after Pregsure BVD has been taken off the market.
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 1, 3584 CL Utrecht, The Netherlands. Electronic address: LindertBenedictus@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Lindert
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Benedictus
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 1, 3584 CL Utrecht, The Netherlands. Electronic address: v.rutten@uu.nl.
authors.forename: Victor P M G
authors.initials: VP
authors.lastname: Rutten
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 1, 3584 CL Utrecht, The Netherlands; Department of Farm Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Yalelaan 7, 3584 CL Utrecht, The Netherlands. Electronic address: a.p.koets@uu.nl.
authors.forename: Ad P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Koets
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D002418:Cattle Diseases / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000517:prevention & control; D001908:Diarrhea Viruses, Bovine Viral; D005260:Female; D007518:Isoantibodies / Q000097:blood*; D010198:Pancytopenia / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000276:immunology; D018182:Pestivirus Infections / Q000517:prevention & control; D011247:Pregnancy; D011270:Pregnancy, Animal / Q000276:immunology*; D014611:Vaccination / Q000009:adverse effects*; D014765:Viral Vaccines / Q000009:adverse effects*
chemical_list: D007518:Isoantibodies; D014765:Viral Vaccines
keywords: Alloantibody; Bovine Neonatal Pancytopenia; Major histocompatibility complex class I; Pregnancy; Vaccine safety