Vaccine development is a top priority in
malignant catarrhal fever (MCF) research. In the case of sheep-associated MCF (SA-MCF) caused by ovine herpesvirus 2 (OvHV-2), progress toward this objective has been hindered by the absence of methods to attenuate or modify the virus, since it cannot be propagated in vitro. As an alternative for
vaccine development, in this study, we tested the hypothesis that one of the SA-MCF
vaccine candidate targets, OvHV-2
glycoprotein B (gB), could be expressed by a nonpathogenic alcelaphine herpesvirus 1 (AlHV-1) and then evaluated the potential of the AlHV-1/OvHV-2 chimera to be used as a
vaccine and a diagnostic tool. The construction and characterization of an AlHV-1/OvHV-2 chimeric virus that is nonpathogenic and expresses an OvHV-2
vaccine target are significant steps toward the development of an SA-MCF
vaccine and also provide a valuable means to study OvHV-2 biology.