Department of Veterinary Microbiology, College of Veterinary and Animal Science, Bikaner, (Rajasthan).
*Corresponding author.
The present study was designed to evaluate the immunogenicity of whole cell and fimbrial Escherichia coli vaccine in mice model prepared from local strain. The main immunogenic portion was fimbriae rather than O antigen/LPS antigen. The whole cell vaccine contained two immunogenic parts, LPS/O antigen and fimbriae. Maximum titers observed were 1024 and 64 against fimbriae and O antigen in whole cell vaccine, respectively. When pili were used alone it also elicited titer of 1024. Complete protection was achieved with both vaccines when mice were challenged with homologous strain to vaccine strain but only partial protection was achieved when challenge was done with heterologous strain to vaccine strain. Therefore, only pili can be used as antigen for vaccine preparation instead of using whole cell.
