Purification of a cross-protective antigen from Pasteurella multocida grown in vitro and in vivo.

A peptone-based medium was formulated to grow Pasteurella multocida in vitro, which expressed an antigen that induces cross protection in turkeys against different serotypes. Vaccines of various chromatographic fractions obtained from P. multocida grown in the medium induced active immune cross protection in turkeys, and sera from these turkeys passively cross protected naïve poults. An antigen of approximately 39 kD molecular size was purified by preparative sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and electroelution from hydroxyapatite chromatographic fractions of both in vivo- and in vitro-grown P. multocida. The purified antigen from either source induced active immune cross protection but no passive protection in one of two experiments. Increasing the dose of vaccine resulted in both active and passive immune cross protection in the second experiment.