Efficacy of a foot-and-mouth disease vaccine against a heterologous SAT1 virus challenge in goats.

Goats are susceptible to infection with foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV), but their role in the epidemiology of the disease and response to vaccination is poorly understood. In southern Africa, FMDV serotypes Southern African Territories (SAT) 1, 2 and 3 are known to be endemic. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of a pentavalent FMD vaccine in goats against heterologous challenge with a pool of field SAT1 FMDV. Forty FMD sero-negative goats (6-12 months of age) of mixed sexes were randomly allocated to one of five treatment groups: full cattle dose (2 ml), 1/3rd (0.67 ml), 1/6th (0.33 ml), 1/12th (0.16 ml) or unvaccinated placebo control. Goats were vaccinated with an inactivated pentavalent FMD vaccine containing serotypes SAT1, SAT2 and SAT3 on day 0 and revaccinated at day 20 post vaccination. Thereafter, thirty-four goats were challenged by tongue inoculation at day 41 post-vaccination using 104.57 50% tissue culture infective dose (TCID50) FMDV SAT1 pool. Animals were examined daily and clinical signs were scored. Rectal temperatures were measured daily, with temperatures ≥40 °C defined as fever. Clinical specimens (nasal, oral and rectal swabs) were collected on days 0, 2, 4 and 6 post challenge. Viral shedding was determined using reverse-transcriptase real-time PCR. None of the goats vaccinated with the full cattle dose developed secondary lesions. All vaccinated groups had lower temperatures compared to the unvaccinated controls (P < 0.001). Based on RT-PCR results, goats in the unvaccinated control group shed more virus compared to all groups except for 1/12th (P < 0.05), while goats in the full dose group shed less virus than goats in the 1/12th and the unvaccinated control group (P < 0.05). The results suggest that the 1/3rd (0.67 ml) dose of the vaccine is sufficient to reduce viral shedding after heterologous challenge with a FMDV SAT1 pool.

Intentionality of a co-actor influences sensorimotor synchronisation with a virtual partner.

Interpersonal sensorimotor synchronisation requires individuals to anticipate and adapt to their partner's movement timing. Research has demonstrated that the intentionality of a co-actor affects joint action planning, however, less is known about whether co-actor intentionality affects sensorimotor synchronisation. Explicit and implicit knowledge of a synchronisation partner's intentionality may influence coordination by modulating temporal anticipation and adaptation processes. We used a computer-controlled virtual partner (VP) consisting of tempo-changing auditory pacing sequences to simulate either an intentional or unintentional synchronisation partner. The VP was programmed to respond to the participant with low or moderate degrees of error correction, simulating a slightly or moderately adaptive human, respectively. In addition, task instructions were manipulated so that participants were told they were synchronising with either another person or a computer. Results indicated that synchronisation performance improved with the more adaptive VP. In addition, there was an influence of the explicit partner instruction, but this was dependent upon the degree of VP adaptivity and was modulated by subjective preferences for either the human or the computer partner. Beliefs about the intentionality of a synchronisation partner may thus influence interpersonal sensorimotor synchronisation in a manner that is modulated by preferences for interacting with intentional agents.