ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Vaccines and Molecular Therapeutics
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1664398
Effect of co-vaccination of cattle with RB51 and BCG on vaccine-specific CD4+ T cell responses
Provisionally accepted
- 1National Animal Disease Center, Agricultural Research Service (USDA), Ames, United States
- 2Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, Oak Ridge, United States
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Brucella abortus and Mycobacterium bovis, the causative agents of bovine brucellosis and tuberculosis respectively, are zoonotic bacterial pathogens that both contribute to major economic losses in the cattle industry and pose a human health risk worldwide. Co-infections of cattle with B. abortus and M. bovis have been identified in various developing countries, necessitating the development of an efficacious strategy for controlling both important zoonotic diseases even in the event of co-infection. Brucella abortus strain RB51, a live attenuated vaccine for bovine brucellosis that is currently used in the US, is highly effective at preventing reproductive failure due to brucellosis in cattle. Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is a live attenuated vaccine strain of M. bovis that provides protection against bovine tuberculosis in cattle but is not currently licensed for use in the US. The study presented here compares functional Th1 responses of RB51 + BCG vaccinated cattle to responses of RB51-only and BCG-only vaccinated cattle to evaluate the feasibility of a combined vaccination strategy for controlling both bovine brucellosis and tuberculosis. This work identified that peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from RB51 vaccinates proliferate not only in response to stimulation with killed RB51 but also in response to mycobacterial antigen PPDb. Combination vaccinates show significantly more CD4 + T cell proliferation than single BCG vaccinates when stimulated with PPDb, while no differences were observed between RB51 and combination vaccinates stimulated with RB51. Significantly enhanced BCG-specific Th1 responses in combination vaccinates compared to BCG-only vaccinates suggest that combining vaccinations for B. abortus and M. bovis may alter the host CD4 + T cell response.
Keywords: BCG, RB51, CD4, Cattle, T helper 1 (IFN-)
Received: 11 Jul 2025; Accepted: 11 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sterle, Putz, Olsen, Palmer and Boggiatto. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Paola M Boggiatto, National Animal Disease Center, Agricultural Research Service (USDA), Ames, United States
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