Transplacental and transcolostral immunity to pertussis in a mouse model using acellular pertussis vaccine.

The protective activity of acellular pertussis vaccine was comparable to that of whole cell vaccine against intracerebral and aerosol infection with Bordetella pertussis in mice. Suckling mice, six to 10 days old, born of mothers immunized with acellular or whole cell pertussis vaccine were challenged with an aerosol of B pertussis strain 18323, and body weight, death, leukocytosis, and viable counts in the lungs were monitored. Protective activity was transferred from mother mice to their offspring through milk and placenta (yolk sac), with substantially greater protection being transferred through the mammary gland.