Abstract
Pasteurella multocida is able to cause disease in humans and in a wide range of animal hosts, including fowl cholera in birds, atrophic rhinitis in pigs, and snuffles in rabbits. Together with Mannheimia haemolytica, P. multocida also represents a major bacterial causative agent of bovine respiratory disease (BRD), which is one of the most important causes for economic losses for the cattle backgrounding and feedlot industry. Commercially available vaccines only partially prevent infections caused by P. multocida and M. haemolytica. Thus, this study characterized the immunogenicity of P. multocida and M. haemolytica outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) upon intranasal immunization of BALB/c mice. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) revealed that OMVs derived from P. multocida or M. haemolytica are able to induce robust humoral and mucosal immune responses against the respective donor strain. In addition, also significant cross-immunogenic potential was observed for both OMV types. Colonization studies showed that a potential protective immune response against P. multocida is not only achieved by immunization with P. multocida OMVs, but also by immunization with OMVs derived from M. haemolytica. Immunoblot and immunoprecipitation analyses demonstrated that M. haemolytica OMVs induce a more complex immune response compared to P. multocida OMVs. The outer membrane proteins OmpA, OmpH, and P6 were identified as the three major immunogenic proteins of P. multocida OMVs. Amongst others, the serotype 1-specific antigen, an uncharacterized outer membrane protein, as well as the outer membrane proteins P2 and OmpA were found to be the most important antigens of M. haemolytica OMVs. These findings are useful for the future development of broad-spectrum OMV based vaccines against BRD and other infections caused by P. multocida or M. haemolytica.