Deletion mutant of a herpesvirus and vaccine containing said virus

摘要

The invention relates to live deletion mutants of a herpesvirus, especially of Pseudorabies virus. The genomes of the mutants differ from the genomes of the parent strain by the presence of one or more deletions selected from a deletion in the inverted repeats, a deletion in the unique sequence, and a deletion in the thymidine kinase gene. The new deletion mutants are avirulent, do not induce latent infections, are stable and possess good immunogenic properties. The invention also relates to vaccines containing the new mutant strains.