Propagation of Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) Virus in Vero Cells for Vaccine Production using Tide Motion Bioreactor

Peste des Petits ruminants (PPR) is considered as one of the major constraints to the productivity of small ruminants in India. Currently PPR control is done by vaccination with an attenuated PPR strain (Sungri/96) produced in monolayers of vero cells grown in roller bottles or static flasks. This work focuses on the production of PPR vaccine using tide motion bio reactor as an advanced option for process scale-up. Both the roller and bio reactor cultures were propagated under same cultural conditions and infected with same multiplicity of infection of PPR vaccine virus. Assessment of infectivity titres determined at periodic intervals in both cultures revealed that the bio reactor culture produced higher amount of virus than the stationary cultures post infection. The results provide further insights into the feasibility of applying tide motion bio reactor cell culture technology to produce PPR vaccine in vero cells significantly simplifying the existing production process.

• The peste des petits ruminants virus is grown in vero cells in roller culture bottles for regular vaccine production.

• In the present study, the tide motion bio reactor was used as an advanced option for the production of PPR virus for vaccine production.

• The study yielded higher titre of virus compared to roller culture bottle simplifying the existing procedure.