Failure of Protection and Enhanced Pneumonia with a US H1N2 Swine Influenza Virus in Pigs Vaccinated with an Inactivated Classical Swine H1N1 Vaccine

Two US swine influenza virus (SIV) isolates, A/Swine/Iowa/15/1930 H1N1 (IA30) and A/Swine/Minnesota/00194/2003 H1N2 (MN03), were evaluated in an in vivo vaccination and challenge model. Inactivated vaccines were prepared from each isolate and used to immunize conventional pigs, followed by challenge with homologous or heterologous virus. Both inactivated vaccines provided complete protection against homologous challenge. However, the IA30 vaccine failed to protect against the heterologous MN03 challenge. Three of the nine pigs in this group had substantially greater percentages of lung lesions, suggesting the vaccine potentiated the pneumonia. In contrast, priming with live IA30 virus provided protection from nasal shedding and virus replication in the lung in MN03 challenged pigs. These data indicate that divergent viruses that did not cross-react serologically did not provide complete cross-protection when used in inactivated vaccines against heterologous challenge and may have enhanced disease. In addition, live virus infection conferred protection against heterologous challenge.