Immune response of salmon to DNA vaccination with various antigens using interferon as adjuvant

There is a need for more effective virus vaccines for farmed Atlantic salmon. Our group is working on DNA vaccines against salmon viruses. We have previously shown that plasmids expressing interferons (IFN) increase the antibody response and protection obtained with a DNA vaccine against infectious salmon anemia virus (ISAV) based on the virus hemagglutininesterase as antigen. In the present project we want to study whether IFN-plasmids can increase the immune response of other protein antigens in salmon and if temperature has an impact in the first weeks after vaccination. The purpose is to increase our understanding of how to develop more effective DNA vaccines against other salmon viruses. Serum will harvested after 10 weeks for antibody measurement and muscle tissue will be harvested after 1 week for quantitative PCR of interferon-induced genes. The fish will only experience minor pain/discomfort as a result of the vaccination or to sampling since the fish will be anesthetized with benzocaine before these procedures. It is not expected that the fish will be harmed by the immune response to the vaccines.
Development of more effective DNA vaccines for Atlantic salmon is important for the aquaculture industry in Norway, but it will also increase our understanding of the immune system of salmon.
A total of 420 Atlantic salmon presmolts will be used. The number of animals per group is the lowest possible to obtain statistically significant results. No reuse of fish is possible since naive animals are needed to study immune responses.