From Fred Brown, Plum Island Animal Disease Center
In his article on Peter Lachmann’s suggestion that prize animals could be
given immediate protection from foot-and-mouth disease by injection of antibodies
(7 April, p 17),
Andy Coghlan quotes Chris Bostock as being sceptical
because the serum from the vaccinated animals might still harbour the virus.
There is a simple solution to that perceived problem. The imine which is
currently used worldwide to kill the virus for the preparation of the
inactivated vaccines has no effect on the antibodies present in the serum. Hans
Bahnemann, my colleagues and I demonstrated this several years ago.
Consequently, I still think it’s a great idea. Emil von Behring, who used
this approach more than a century ago in the treatment of diphtheria, would have
approved. He was rewarded in 1901 with the first Nobel prize awarded for
Physiology or Medicine for this approach to disease control.
Greenport, New York
