Neutralizing feature of commercially available feline calicivirus (FCV) vaccine immune sera against FCV field isolates.

Four types of commercially available feline calicivirus (FCV) vaccine were compared in terms of their efficacy on the basis of the ability of the sera of specific-pathogen-free cats immunized by two injections of each type of vaccine to neutralize FCV field isolates. Each vaccine immune serum neutralized relatively well strains F4, F9, and 255, which were FCV laboratory strains. As to 36 strains of field isolates, however, vaccines A, B, C, and D immune sera did not neutralize 18-20 of the strains (50.0%-55.6%), 19-22 of the strains (52.8%-61.1%), 22-25 of the strains (61.1%-69.4%), and 8-16 of the strains (22.2%-44.4%), respectively. These results indicate that there is much difference in neutralizing antigenicity between the existing vaccine strains and the FCV strains that are prevalent in Japan, suggesting the need for improvement of FCV vaccines.