Efficacy of commercial vaccines for protecting guinea pigs against Bordetella bronchiseptica pneumonia.

Autogenous bacterins are recommended to protect guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus) against pneumonia due to Bordetella bronchiseptica. Bordetella vaccines are available commercially for several other animal species. The substantial antigenic cross-reactivity among Bordetella isolates from various animal species suggests that immunity resulting from use of these vaccines might protect guinea pigs. Groups of ten individually housed Hartley guinea pigs from a colony free of Bordetella were vaccinated with one of two commercial porcine B. bronchiseptica vaccines, a human DPT vaccine (which includes a Bordetella pertussis component), or an autogenous B. bronchiseptica bacterin. Twenty-one days following vaccination, the animals were challenged with an intranasal dose of 10(6) virulent B. bronchiseptica cells. The animals were euthanized and necropsied 15 days after challenge. The nares, nasopharynx, distal trachea and lungs were cultured. All nonvaccinated control animals developed acute signs of pneumonia, while none of the vaccinated animals developed clinical signs of disease or gross lesions. The frequency of B. bronchiseptica isolation from the lungs of animals in each vaccine group was reduced. However, approximately 70% of all animals in each vaccine group harbored B. bronchiseptica in the trachea, and almost all harbored B bronchiseptica in the nares and nasopharynx. The porcine vaccines appeared to afford protection against acute pulmonary disease in the guinea pig.