PORCINE TRANSMISSIBLE GASTROENTERITIS VIRUS ORAL VACCINE PRODUCTION IN PLANTS

摘要

The present invention provides a method of preparing at least one portion transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) protein comprising the steps of obtaining a S gene for TGEV that has been altered for optimal expression in the plant, inserting the gene within a vector suitable for transforming a plant, transforming the plant with the vector and growing the transformed plant. This invention also provides a method of immunizing pigs against porcine TGEV comprising harvesting the transformed plant to obtain harvested tissue and feeding the harvested tissue to pigs, or extracting the protein from the harvested tissue and administering the protein to the pig as a food supplement or as an injection. Direct grazing of the plant tissue prior to harvesting may also be employed as desired. The invention extends to isolated DNA molecules encoding a S gene for TGEV that have been altered for optimal expression in the plant and to vectors comprising these genes.