Scientists develop vaccine against cattle disease

(Phys.org) —Malignant catarrhal fever (MCF) is a disease that is almost always fatal in cattle. Cows contract MCF after coming into contact with wildebeest carrying a form of herpes virus known as alcelaphine herpesvirus 1 (AlHV-1). In a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Benjamin Dewals of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Liège in Belgium and his team report that they have discovered the gene that enables AlHV-1 infection to progress to MCF, and they have developed a vaccine against the disease.