Evaluación de un modelo de infección murino para la evaluación de vacunas homólogas y heterólogas contra Brucella canis

the development of an effective vaccine against brucellosis is a research area of much interest since there is no available vaccine against canine brucellosis. one limitation in testing any immunization strategy is the lack of a suitable laboratory animal that is permissive to the infection. in this work, a mouse model was developed to study splenic b. canis rm6/66 infection using different doses, times of sacrifice and inoculation routes. in addition, homologous (b. canis m- bacterin) and heterologous (live or b. ovis bacterin) rough whole cell vaccines were evaluated as potential control vaccines. bacterins were formulated in marcol 52, montanide or quil a. the evolution of b. canis infection in the spleen of mice inoculated by i.p. or i.v. route was similar when 106-107 cfu (colony forming unit) were administered. using these doses and routes, similar spleen bacterial burden was found in mice sacrificed at 14, 21 and 30 days after inoculation. the best protection was conferred by live b. ovis while a lower but significant protection was observed in groups vaccinated with b. canis m- bacterin formulated in marcol 52 or montanide. these results indicate that mouse model is adequate to evaluate potential vaccines against canine brucellosis.