Figure 3. Protection of rMVA/rMVA vaccinated IFNAR^(−/−) mice against an AHSV-4 or AHSV-9 challenge.

Mice (8 weeks old, 6 per group) were immunized twice by homologous prime-boost vaccination with rMVA expressing VP2 (♦), NS1 (▪), or VP2/NS1 (•), AHSV-4 proteins or MVA (▴) (non-immunized mice), administered 3 weeks apart. Two weeks after immunization all mice were subcutaneously inoculated with 10⁶ PFUs of AHSV-4 or AHSV-9. (A) Survival rates of immunized and non-immunized IFNAR^(−/−) mice after inoculation with AHSV-4 or AHSV-9. The mice were observed every 24 h for 17 days. (B) Titers of AHSV-4 or AHSV-9 recovered in blood of immunized and non-immunized IFNAR^(−/−) mice after challenge. Virus was extracted from blood and determined as described in Materials and Methods. Each point represents the mean values of the viral titer of six animals, and standard deviations are shown as error bars.