Evaluating the efficacy of an attenuated Streptococcus equi ssp. zooepidemicus vaccine produced by multi-gene deletion in pathogenicity island SeseCisland_4

Streptococcus equi ssp. zooepidemicus (SEZ) is a pathogen associated with a wild range of animal species. Frequent outbreaks have occurred in recent years in pigs, horses, goats and dogs which is liable to infect humans. There is a lack of efficient vaccines against this disease and the occurrence of antibiotic resistance may render drug therapies ineffective. In this study, gene deletion mutant (ΔSEZ) in pathogenicity islands SeseCisland_4 was constructed. The mutant ΔSEZ had a 52-fold decrease in 50% lethal dose (LD50) and had less capacity to adhere epithelial cells. Importantly, immunization of mice with attenuated vaccine ΔSEZ at the dose of 102 colony-forming units (CFU) mL−1 elicited a significant humoral antibody response, with an antibody titer of 1:12 800. Therefore, 102 CFU mL−1 might be used as the appropriate immune dose for the attenuated vaccine ΔSEZ, which provided mice with efficient protection against virulent SEZ. In addition, the hyperimmune sera against 102 CFU mL−1 attenuated vaccine ΔSEZ could confer significant protection against virulent SEZ infection in the passive immunization experiment and exhibited efficient bactericidal activity in the whole blood assay. Meanwhile, no viable bacteria was detected in blood when mice were immunized with ΔSEZ at the dose of 102 CFU mL−1 via hypodermic injection. Thereafter, the mutant ΔSEZ at the dose of 102 CFU mL−1 could confer significant protection in mice and had less negative effects on host, which could be an effective attenuated vaccine candidate for the prevention of SEZ.