Feline leukemia vaccine: Efficacy, contents and probable mechanism

Abstract An effective subunit vaccine against feline leukemia virus infection and related diseases has been developed. The source of the vaccine immunogen is feline retrovirus persistently infected cells that continuously synthesize and shed virus polypeptides. Western blot analysis identifies FeLV-gp70, p27, p15, p12, and p10 in the subunit vaccine preparation. Cats immunized with the vaccine developed antibodies to a 70,000 MW protein of the vaccine that seems to be distinct from, but related to the FeLV-gp70 polypeptide.