the genus pestivirus of the family flaviviridae conventionally consists of classical swine fever virus ( csfv ), border disease virus ( bdv ), and bovine viral diarrhea virus ( bvdv ). genomes of several bvdv and csfv strains have been sequenced ( renard et al ., 1987 ep application 0208672 ; collett et al ., 1988 , virology 165 , 191 - 199 ; deng and brock , 1992 , virology 1991 , 865 - 679 ; meyers et al ., 1989 , virology 171 , 555 - 567 ; moonnann et al ., 1990 , virology 177 , 184 - 188 ). for bdv , only incomplete genomic nucleotide sequences are yet available . the pestivirus genome is a positive - stranded rna molecule of about 12 . 5 kilobases containing one large open reading frame . the open reading frame is translated into a hypothetical polyprotein of approximately 4 , 000 amino acids , which is processed by virus - and cell - encoded proteases . the open reading frame is flanked by two highly conserved small non - translated regions , which are probably involved in the replication of the genome . the 5 ′- non - coding region also plays a role in initiation of translation . the polyprotein , which is co - and post - translationally processed by cellular and viral proteases , contains all the viral structural and nonstructural proteins ( for review , see c . m . rice : in fields virology , third edition , 1996 flaviviridae : the viruses and their replication , chapter 30 , pp . 931 - 959 ). the viral structural proteins , among which are the envelope proteins e rns , e1 and e2 , are located in the n - terminal part of the polyprotein . the nonstructural proteins , among which are the serine protease ns3 and rna replicase complex ns5a and ns5b , are located in the c - terminal part of the polyprotein . animals infected with a pestivirus develop antibodies against e rns , e2 and ns3 . however , only antibodies directed against e2 are strongly virus neutralizing , whereas those directed against e rns and ns3 have only a low virus neutralizing capacity , or none at all . this knowledge prompted us to start evaluation of the suitability of e2 as a csfv subunit marker vaccine . in this setup , e rns and / or ns3 could be used for development of the diagnostic test accompanying the e2 marker vaccine . to date , bdv and bvdv have been isolated from different species , whereas csfv seems to be restricted to swine . pestiviruses are structurally and antigenically closely related . envelope glycoprotein e2 is the most immunogenic and most variable protein of pestiviruses . we cloned e2 genes of many different pestivirus strains , including those from a deer and a giraffe . the e2 genes were transiently expressed , characterized with monoclonal antibodies , sequenced and compared . p . a . van rijn et al ., 1997 , virology , 237 : 337 - 348 . based on this data , we can delineate six major groups within the pestivirus genus . four groups correspond to defined genotypes , whereas the other two groups are new genotypes within the pestivirus genus . one group comprises csfv strains isolated from swine . a second group consists of bdv strains moredun , l83 and x818 , which have been isolated from sheep , and strain f from swine . a third group contains strain bd78 from sheep , strain 5250 from swine and strain 178003 from cattle . on the basis of e2 , these viruses are very similar to bvdv strains associated with acute severe outbreaks of bovine viral diarrhea , so called type 2 bvdv . the fourth group consists of bvdv strains predominantly originating from cattle . this bvdv group can be divided into two subtypes or subgroups , bvdv - 1a and 1b . bvdv - 1a contains viruses from the usa , like nadl and oregon , and some others , like 150022 and 1138 , from europe . subgroup bvdv - 1b contains strain osloss and several dutch isolates . the fifth and sixth “ groups ” could be proposed as two new genotypes and contain strains deer and giraffe , respectively . the development of marker vaccines for veterinary use has led to new concepts for control and eradication of economically important viral diseases of livestock . the use of a marker vaccine allows serological discrimination between vaccinated and field virus - infected animals , and thereby a controlled elimination of the virus . for instance , in most member states of the eu , vaccination against aujeszky &# 39 ; s disease ( ad ) is allowed with ge - negative vaccines only . animals infected with an ad field virus do develop antibodies against ge . an elisa test which detects these antibodies is used for the detection of infected animals , which subsequently may be removed from a herd , and for monitoring the status of field virus infections in a herd during prolonged vaccination campaigns . eventually , the aim is to reach a field virus free status of a herd . vaccination can then be discontinued and a serological surveillance program to guard this status should come into force . thus , vaccination with a marker vaccine will reduce the costs of eradication campaigns which rely on stamping out of infected herds , instead of only the infected individual animal . if performed on a large enough scale and during a long enough period , this may even be a faster method to reach the field virus free status of the pig population than stamping out the infections . now and in the future , when current endemic diseases like ad have been eradicated , there is still use for marker vaccines , e . g ., to control outbreaks of diseases which have been eradicated from the population and against which there is no routine vaccination anymore . in such cases where an animal population is serologically naive , highly contagious diseases may spread explosively and can then cause enormous economic losses . many examples have shown that the baculovirus system supports high - level expression of heterologous proteins . high - level expression is highly advantageous because dead subunit vaccines are generally only capable of eliciting a protective immune response when a large amount of antigen is applied . in our first approach , two recombinant baculoviruses , one expressing e2 with a tmr ( bace2 [+]) and the other expressing e2 without a tmr ( bace2 [−]), were constructed ( hulst et al ., 1993 , j . virol . 67 : 5435 - 5442 ). note that in this publication and other comparable publications , e2 is still designated with , its old name e1 . e2 without a tmr was secreted into the cell culture medium whereas e2 with a tmr was not . furthermore , both e2s reacted identically with monoclonal antibodies representing each of the four antigenic domains on e2 . this suggested that the antigenic properties of cell - associated and secreted e2 were identical , and because secreted e2 was produced to much higher levels than cell - associated e2 ( ten - fold higher ), it was decided to test secreted immunoaffinity purified e2 in a vaccination trial in pigs . two vaccine formulations containing 20 μg e2 / ml and 100 μg e2 / ml in a double water - oil adjuvant were prepared . of four groups of 2 spf pigs , two were vaccinated im with 20 μg e2 , and two with 100 μg e2 . after 28 days , 1 group vaccinated with 20 μg e2 and 1 group vaccinated with 100 μg e2 , were revaccinated with the same dose e2 . at day 42 all animals were challenged intranasally with virulent csfv strain brescia . regardless of the vaccine dose applied , all vaccinated pigs had mounted neutralizing antibodies at day 28 , though to different levels . up until day 42 , the day of challenge , antibody titers kept rising to high levels in all animals , whether they were boosted or not . therefore , it was not surprising that even animals which were vaccinated only once with a dose of 20 μg immunoaffinity purified e2 , were already completely protected against csf ( hulst et al ., 1993 j . virol . 67 : 5435 - 5442 ). because animals infected with pestiviruses invariably develop antibodies against e rns ( kwang et al ., 1992 , vet . microbiol . 32 : 281 - 292 ), a second viral envelope glycoprotein , one of the viral proteins most suitable for diagnostic test development in conjunction with e2 , was used . however , there is also one report which suggests that e rns could be an important antigen for the protection of pigs against csf ( könig et al ., 1995 , j . virol . 69 : 6479 - 6486 ). in these studies , e rns was expressed with a live virus vaccinia vector . animals vaccinated simultaneously by 3 different routes ( intradermally , intravenously , and intraperitoneally ) with 5 × 10 7 pfu of vaccinia - e rns recombinant virus per injection site , survived an in challenge with a lethal dose of csfv strain alfort at 5 weeks post - vaccination , without showing any signs of csf . to evaluate the suitability of e rns as a dead subunit vaccine , baculovirus expressed e rns of strain brescia ( conform hulst et al ., 1994 , virology , 200 : 558 - 565 ) was tested in pigs . groups of 6 spf pigs were vaccinated once im with 5 . 0 and 20 μg e rns , respectively ( moormann et al ., 1996 , proc . 14 th intern . pig . vet . society congress , pp . 25 - 29 , bologna , italy ). a third group of 4 nonvaccinated spf pigs served as control . three weeks after vaccination all animals were challenged im with 10 5 tcid 50 of strain behring . within 5 days after challenge all animals vaccinated with the lowest dose e rns developed severe signs of csf . within 14 days after challenge , 2 animals died , 3 were killed when moribund , and 1 apparently recovered . five of these animals , including the one that recovered , were positive in the ift . after challenge , all animals vaccinated with the highest dose e rns showed , more or less , severe signs of csf and high fever for several days , but within 14 days , 4 of 6 animals recovered , 1 animal had died , and another was killed when moribund . of the 4 surviving animals , only 1 appeared positive in the ift . in contrast , all control animals showed severe signs of csf within 5 days after challenge , died within 14 days after challenge , and were positive in the ift ( moormann et al ., 1996 , proc . 14 th intern . pig . vet . society congress , pp . 25 - 29 , bologna , italy ). we concluded that baculovirus expressed e rns can protect pigs against a heterologous csfv challenge , albeit with a much lower efficacy than baculovirus expressed e2 does . follicle - stimulating hormone ( fsh ) belongs to the family of glycoprotein hormones , which are produced either in the pituitary ( luteinizing hormone , lh ; thyroid stimulating hormone , tsh ) or in the placenta ( human chorionic gonadotropin , hcg ; pregnant mare serum gonadotropin , pmsg ). within a species , each of these hormones consists of a common alpha subunit , which is non - covalently bound to a hormone - specific beta subunit . purified fsh , administered alone or in combination with lh , is widely used to induce a superovulatory response in many species , including cattle . a problem in the cow is that bovine fsh is difficult to purify in substantial quantities from bovine pituitaries . for this reason , fsh of ovine ( ofsh ), porcine ( pfsh ) or equine ( efsh , pmsg ) origin is commonly used for superovulation treatment of cows . however , application of brain tissue - derived material is not free of risk , due to the possible presence of prion - like proteins , which can cause bovine spongiforme encephalopathy ( bse ) in cows , and possibly a variant of creutzfeldt - jacob disease ( cjd ) in humans . furthermore , the use of placenta - derived material has the disadvantage of a very long biological half - life , which necessitates its neutralization by the injection of specific antibodies . finally , all currently used fsh preparations do contain some lh activity which is considered responsible , at least in part , for the observed large variation in superovulation results . for these reasons , it seems likely that superovulation treatment of cows can benefit from the application of recombinant bovine fsh ( rbfsh ) produced in nonmammalian cells , such as insect cells ( baculovirus expression system ). 1 . an example of the preparation of a production cell culture ( pcs ) of sf21 cells a cryo vial with 1 . 5 ml of sf21 working cell seed ( wcs ) ( total number of cells is 4 - 10 × 10 6 cells / ml ) is thawed to a temperature of 20 - 30 ° c . after thawing , the content of the vial is transferred to a 15 ml falcon ™ tube , containing 8 . 5 ml serum free medium sf900ii , and suspended . after suspension , the content of the falcon ™ tube is centrifuged at 100 - 200 × g for 10 minutes to precipitate the cells . the medium is discarded and the pellet suspended in 4 - 6 ml of sf900ii . the suspended cells are transferred to a 100 ml shake flask , containing 10 ml sf900ii . the cells are cultured for 3 - 7 days at 26 - 30 ° c . by placing the flask on an orbital shaker platform at 40 - 80 rpm . cell growth and cell viability are monitored by taking in process samples . when the cell density is 1 . 0 - 6 . 5 × 10 6 cells / ml , the cells are passed to two 500 ml shake flasks , containing 100 ml sf900ii each . this corresponds to a 10 - fold dilution of the cells . again , the cells are cultured for 3 - 7 days at 26 - 30 ° c . by placing the flask on an orbital shaker platform shaking at 40 - 60 rpm . cell growth and cell viability are constantly monitored by in - process control . when the cell density is 1 . 0 - 6 . 5 × 10 6 cells / ml , the cells are passed for a second time to , in this case , six to eleven 500 ml shake flasks , containing 100 ml sf900ii each . excess cell material is discarded . also , in this case , a 10 - fold dilution is achieved . the cells are cultured for 3 - 7 days at 26 - 30 ° c . by placing the flask on an orbital shaker platform shaking at 40 - 80 rpm . cell growth and cell viability are constantly monitored by in - process control . when the cell density is 1 . 0 - 6 . 5 × 10 6 cells / ml , 500 ml or 1000 ml of the suspension containing the cells is passed to a 5 liter or 10 liter fermentor , containing approximately 4 . 5 liters or 9 liters of sf900ii , respectively . this corresponds to a 10 - fold dilution of the cells . the cells are cultured for 3 - 7 days at 26 - 30 ° c . the suspension is constantly stirred ( 50 - 100 rpm ). cell growth and cell viability are constantly monitored by in - process control . when the cell density is 1 . 0 - 6 . 5 × 10 6 cells / ml , the content of the 5 liter fermentor is passed to a 50 1 fermentor , containing approximately 40 liters of sf900ii . the cells are cultured at 26 - 30 ° c . until a density of ± 5 - 15 × 10 5 cells / ml is reached . the suspension is constantly stirred ( 50 - 100 rpm ). samples are taken for in - process control . to the above - mentioned cell suspension , 1 - 2 ml of working seed virus ( wvs ) ( bace2 [−]) containing ± 10 7 tcid 50 / ml is added . the suspension is incubated at 28 ° c . for 3 - 8 days until 70 - 100 % of the cells show a cytopathic effect . during the incubation , samples are taken for in - process control . next , the suspension is clarified by removal of the cells by microfiltration . the obtained filtrate ( i . e ., the antigen solution ) is collected and stored at ≦− 20 ° c . until the inactivation step ( 3 . 3 ) is started . samples are taken for in - process control . to determine antigen content or antigenic mass , samples are tested , e . g ., in an enzyme - linked immune assay , or in a protein assay to determine actual weight per volume of the water protein , or by a combination of such methods . the virus is inactivated by adding 2 - bromoethyl - ammoniumbromide ( bea ) to a concentration of 10 mmol / l . by adjusting the ph to 8 . 2 - 8 . 7 and the temperature at 34 - 37 ° c ., bea is converted to 2 - bromoethyl - imminebromide ( bei ), which is the active component to inactivate the virus . virus kill is checked by taking samples for in - process control . the inactivation takes 24 - 72 hours . after inactivation , & lt ; 1 infectious particle per 10 , 000 liters may be present . after virus inactivation , bei is neutralized by adding sodium - thiosulphate to a concentration of 5 - 25 mmol / l and adjusting the ph to 5 . 7 - 6 . 3 . samples are taken for in - process control . the inactivated and neutralized antigen solution is transferred into 1 and / or 5 liter bags and stored at ≦− 20 ° c . the frozen antigen solution is thawed at 22 - 28 ° c . and diluted with sf900ii or pbs to an antigen solution of 50 μg / ml . thiomersal is added as an anti - microbiological agent to 100 μg / ml . samples are taken for in - process control . this solution ( i . e ., the first water phase ) is stored at 2 - 8 ° c . for & lt ; 3 days . meanwhile , the oil phase has been prepared by mixing marcol 52 with montanide 80 ( 9 : 1 ). this solution is also stored at 2 - 8 ° c . for no more than 3 days . the oil phase is sterile filtered through a 0 . 22 μm - sterile filter . samples are taken for in - process control . finally , the second water phase is prepared by mixing phosphate - buffered saline ( pbs ) or sf900ii medium with montanox 80 ( 98 : 2 ), and thiomersal is added to a final concentration of 100 μg / ml . this solution is stored at 2 - 8 ° c . until use (& lt ; 3 days ). before use , the first water phase is sterile filtered . samples are taken for in - process control . the first emulsion is prepared by mixing the first water phase with the oil phase ( 1 : 1 . 1 ). this emulsion may be stored at 2 - 8 ° c . no more than 3 days . samples are taken for in - process control . the double water - in - oil emulsion is prepared by emulsifying the first emulsion with the second water phase ( 2 . 1 : 1 ). the double emulsion is stored at 2 - 8 ° c . in a quarantine storage room until filling in vials . samples are taken for in - process control . the double emulsion solution is filled aseptically in a class a zone in the clean room . the filling volume is 51 , 102 or 255 ml in 50 , 100 or 250 ml vials , respectively . the filling volume is constantly monitored , by checking the weight of the filled volume . immediately after filling , the vials are stoppered and capped . finally , the vials are stored in a quarantine storage room at 2 - 8 ° c . after which the quality control is initiated . example of a scheme for 50 liters fermentor scale e2 subunit vaccine to investigate the stability of the e2 protein in an infected cell culture ( moi * 0 . 0001 ) after prolonged culturing under otherwise normal conditions . due to the lytic nature of the infection process of the baculovirus in the cell culture , proteases might be released in the medium late in the infection cycle . whether or not this results in degradation of the e2 protein and , thus , in a decrease of the volumetric e2 protein levels , is the topic of this experiment . when medium or sf900ii is mentioned , sf900ii medium with 0 . 2 % pluronic f68 is meant . a vial with sf21 cells is thawed and cultured in 10 ml of sf900ii in a 100 ml shake flask in an incubator on an orbital shaker platform . when the cell culture reaches the required cell density , the cells are diluted ten - fold to 100 ml in a 500 ml shake flask . when this cell culture reached the required cell density , it was passaged by diluting ten - fold to 100 ml again . excess cell material was discarded . when this cell culture reached the required cell density , it was diluted ten - fold to three 500 ml shake flasks with 100 ml volume per flask . excess material was discarded . the shake flasks are placed on an iks orbital shaker platform , stirring at 70 rpm in an 28 ° c . incubator . at a cell density of 0 . 612 * 105 cells per ml , 63 μl of a 100 × diluted virus suspension is added to flask nos . 2 and 3 . shake flask no . 1 is kept as an uninfected blank . the moi with which the cultures are infected is ( 0 . 063 * 0 . 01 * 0 . 8 * 107 )/( 100 * 0 . 612 * 105 )= 0 . 00008 . the 100 × diluted virus suspension that was used was prepared as outlined below . msv vial 253 was thawed by qc and diluted 100 × in tc100 medium , supplemented with 10 % fbs ( lot no . 97qc0139 ) and stored at − 70 ° c . in 0 . 5 ml portions . regularly , samples are taken from both infected shake flask cultures and the uninfected shake flask for determination of the condition of the cell culture . sampling was performed as outlined below . approximately 1 . 1 ml of cell material is spun down in 15 ml falcon ™ tubes in iec centra gp8r centrifuge for 6 minutes at 1000 rpm . then the supernatant is 0 . 45 μm filtered through a gelman acrodisc ® syringe filter to discard cells that might still be present . 0 . 4 ml samples are stored in nalgene cryogenic vials at − 70 ° c . for later analysis . as can be seen in the data in fig1 and the graphs in fig2 the cell growth curves in flasks 2 and 3 develop more or less similarly . after 191 hpi , no more cell counts were done , since virtually all cells were dead and infected . the 139 hpi sample of flask 2 is left out of the graph . the cell counts of this sample are much higher than both the previous and following sample . this indicates that probably some precipitation has occurred before or after sampling resulting in an inaccurate sample that was mixed with the trypan blue solution . this assumption is confirmed by the fact that both the viability and infection percentage are in accordance with expected results . this means that nothing unusual is happening in the infected culture itself . this inaccurate sampling will most likely have no effect on the e2 concentration in the sample , since the e2 is present in the medium and not intracellular . the e2 concentration in flask 2 rises quite rapidly to a maximum of & gt ; 190 μg / ml around 139 hpi and then slowly decreases to 170 μg / ml at 215 hpi . then the e2 - content drops more quickly to a final level of & lt ; 100 μg / ml at 306 . 5 hpi . the profile in flask 3 is more or less the same . the maximum e2 protein content is also reached around 139 hpi , but it is slightly higher than in flask 2 . the e2 concentration slowly decreases from 233 μg / ml at 139 hpi to 212 μg / ml at 191 hpi before the concentration drops more rapidly to 141 μg / ml 215 hpi . flasks 2 and 3 show a good correlation . at t = 44 . 25 hpi shake flask no . 1 , the blank , was also counted . living cell density was 2 . 435 * 106 cells / ml , dead cell density 0 . 190 * 106 and total cell density 2 . 625 * 106 cells / ml , giving a viability of 92 . 8 %. the living cell density is significantly higher than in both flasks 2 and 3 , indicating that infection is already slowing down cell growth . this blank culture was subsequently passaged . the following table shows the results of immunoblotting assay performed on a selection of flask 2 . sample ( hpi ) v3 degraded v3 v8 degraded v8 0 − − − − 44 − − − − 115 + − − − 139 + − + − 164 . 5 + − + − 191 + + + − 288 + + + + 306 . 5 + + + − as can be seen in this table , epitopes v3 and v8 are not yet detectable in the 0 and 44 hpi samples . this correlates well with the results of the e2 - elisa . in the samples from 115 hpi onwards , intact e2 is detected , since both v3 and v8 are detected in the e2 band . from 191 hpi onwards , a second band from a smaller protein is visible on the gel . immunoblotting with v3 and v8 in two separate blots shows that the degradation product does contain the v3 epitope but not the vs epitope . no vs is detected anywhere else on the blot but in the intact e2 band . this assay clearly shows that degradation of the e2 protein does occur due to the presence of proteases . in fact , this may be held responsible for the drop in the e2 protein content which is observed during the microfiltration step of the bulk e2 antigen solution . in this downstream processing step , cells are removed before the virus inactivation starts . therefore , it is most likely that the presence of a protease causes the degradation of the e2 protein . to further investigate the relationship between moi ( multiplicity of infection , number of viruses per cell ) maximum cell density and volumetric e2 - content , on the one hand , infection of the complete cell population must be completed before the medium is exhausted , but on the other hand , infection of the total population at low cell concentration results in suboptimal protein yields . 76 ml of cell suspension was diluted in 444 ml sf900ii in a 1000 ml bottle and gently mixed . the living cell density just before dilution of the culture was 3 . 41 * 106 cells / ml , the dead cell density 0 . 190 * 106 , giving a viability of 94 . 8 %. this dilution should give a cell density of ± 5 * 105 cells / ml . furthermore , gentamycin was added to a final concentration of 10 μg / ml . the cell suspension was divided into nine 50 ml portions in 250 ml shake flasks and excess cell material was discarded . the first 50 ml was transferred to shake flask 1 , the final 50 ml to shake flask 5 . the preparation of the virus stock is as follows : a dilution range is made of a vial with 100 × diluted virus suspension ( the vial contains 0 . 8 * 105 plaque forming units ( pfu ) per ml ). this 100 × diluted virus stock solution was prepared as follows : master seed virus was thawed and diluted 100 × in tc100 medium , supplemented with 10 % fbs and stored at − 70 ° c . in 0 . 5 ml portions . 0 . 4 ml of this 100 × diluted virus solution is diluted with 3 . 6 ml of sf900ii medium , resulting in a dilution factor of 10 − 1 . 1 ml of this solution is added to 9 ml of medium , resulting in a dilution factor of 10 − 2 , 1 ml of this solution is added to 9 ml of medium to give a dilution factor of 10 − 3 and 1 ml of this solution is diluted ten - fold to give a dilution factor of 10 − 4 . 3 . 1 ml of medium is added to shake flasks 1 and 6 ( blank flasks ), containing the cell culture . 3 . 1 ml of virus dilutions 10 − 2 , 10 − 3 and 10 − 4 are added to shake flasks 4 and 9 , 3 and 8 , and 2 and 7 , respectively . these shake flasks already contain the cell culture . in 3 . 1 ml of virus dilution 10 − 2 , there are 3 . 1 * 10 − 2 * 0 . 8 * 10 5 = 2 . 5 * 10 3 pfu present . in a shake flask with 50 ml of cell suspension , 0 . 5 * 10 6 * 50 = 2 . 5 * 10 7 cells are present . so , addition of 3 . 1 ml of virus dilution 10 − 2 to 50 ml of the cell suspension results in an moi of 2 . 5 * 10 3 / 2 . 5 * 10 7 = 0 . 0001 . making comparable calculations for the other virus dilutions , moi counts of 0 . 00001 and 0 . 000001 are obtained for virus dilutions 10 − 3 and 10 − 4 added to 50 ml of cell culture . finally , 2 . 85 ml of dilution 10 − 1 is added to shake flask no . 5 , resulting in an moi of 0 . 00092 instead of 0 . 001 . a 3 . 1 ml sample is taken of each shake flask immediately after virus addition . the cells in the samples are spun down in an iec centra gp8r centrifuge in 15 ml falcon ™ tubes ( 10 min 1000 rpm ). sampling is carried out going from low moi to high moi to prevent virus transmission from an infected cell suspension with high moi to a cell suspension infected with low moi . after centrifugation , samples are 0 . 45 μm filtered ( to remove cells that might still be present in the supernatant ) and divided over 3 nalgene cryovials and stored at − 70 ° c . for testing later on . the cell density of shake flasks 1 and 5 was determined immediately after virus addition . these were the first and the last flask to be inoculated with cells . since the cell densities were almost identical , it was assumed that all flasks had a cell density equal to the average value of both cell counts . the initial living cell density was 0 . 423 * 10 6 cells / ml , whereas 0 . 012 * 10 6 cells were dead , giving a viability of 97 . 3 %. all flasks were placed on the labotech 300 orbital shaker platform , stirring at approximately 75 rpm in the 28 ° c . room . at 23 , 95 , 125 , 144 , 173 and 194 hpi ( hours post infection ) all flasks were sampled . samples from which the cell density was determined had a volume of 3 . 3 ml , of which 0 . 2 ml was used to determine the cell density . the remaining 3 . 1 ml is handled as mentioned above for the t = 0 sample . samples of cultures that were not counted had a volume of 3 . 1 ml . at 194 hpi , the cell density was determined and the experiment was terminated . the remaining cell suspension ( approximately 30 ml ) was stored in 3 portions of 1 ml in nalgene cryovials and 4 portions of approximately 6 ml in 15 ml falcon ™ tubes . the results show that there is a good correlation between moi and optimum cell density and , more importantly , between moi and e2 protein yield . this can be seen in the graphs where the maximum volumetric e2 protein yield of the cultures infected with moi 0 . 001 is set at 100 %. it shows that the volumetric e2 protein yield increases with decreasing moi . up to an moi of 0 . 0001 , the cell density is infected before the maximum achievable cell density is reached . using an moi of 0 . 00001 or less , results in an infection where the medium is exhausted before the infection of the culture is completed , resulting in suboptimal protein yields . the conclusion can , therefore , be drawn that the lower the moi used , the higher the e2 protein yield , provided that the medium is not exhausted before the infection process and e2 production is completed . transfer vectors pdw - alpha - 9 . 1 and pdw - beta - 3 . 1 were constructed . sf21 cells were co - transfected with pdw - alpha - 9 . 1 or pdw - beta - 3 . 1 and wild - type ( wt ) acnpv / m021 dna isolated from extracellular virus particles ( pct application : wo 96 / 25696 ). polyhedrin - positive plaques expressing β - galactosidase were isolated and analyzed for expression of bfshα or bfshβ by elisa of culture media . one plaque - purified bfshα virus ( acnpvα3 . 4 ) and one plaque - purified bfshβ virus ( acnpvβ1 . 4 ) were used to prepare virus stocks with a tcid50 of approximately 10 7 and 10 8 , respectively . production of fsh occurred according to the methods described above and resulted in production levels varying from 17 to 33 μg / ml . assessment of the dose ( μg ) of e2 needed after one vaccination to protect 95 % ( pd 95 ) of the vaccinated pigs against a challenge with a 100 ld 50 of the virulent csfv strain brescia . twenty - six specific - pathogen - free ( spf ) pigs , 6 - 7 weeks old , were randomly divided on arrival in three groups of eight ( a - c ) and one group of two ( d ). the animals were housed in stables b18 , b19 , b20 and b21 within the high containment facilities of the id - dlo . the animals were left to acclimatize for three days . the animals were fed once a day , in a trough , with complete food pellets ( hope farms ), and could drink water from a nipple ad libitum . three formulations of double - water - in - oil adjuvanted vaccine were prepared as described above , each with a different concentration of e2 antigen ; 32 . 0 , 8 . 0 and 2 . 0 μg / dose . the pigs were inoculated once intramuscularly , each pig receiving one dose , 2 cm behind the left ear ( a : 2 μg e2 ; b : 8 μg e2 ; c : 32 μg e2 ; d : 0 μg e2 ). the control group d was inoculated with doe adjuvant only and the sentinel pigs were not inoculated at all . three weeks after vaccination , each animal , except the sentinels , was challenged intranasally with 100 50 % lethal doses (= 100 va ld 50 ) of csfv strain brescia 456610 . just before challenge , the sentinels were separated from their group and returned 24 hours later . viral contents of the inoculum was determined by titration of a sample taken after return from the stable . the pigs were checked daily by the animal technicians , abnormal findings were recorded and , if necessary , the supervising veterinarian was called . each group was observed at least 15 minutes per day before and during feeding time and cleansing of the stable . a reduction in food uptake of the group or an individual animal was noted . body temperatures ( rectal ) were recorded during nine days after vaccination and for 20 days after challenge . edta - blood samples were collected on day 0 , 2 , 4 , 7 , 10 and 14 after challenge to monitor changes in leukocyte and thrombocyte numbers . a decrease in the number of leucocytes ( leucopenia ) and thrombocytes ( thrombocytopenia ) in the blood is one of the typical signs of csf . normal cell counts for white blood cells and thrombocytes in conventional swine range between , respectively , 11 - 23 10 9 / l and 320 - 720 10 9 / l . for spf pigs , these values are a bit lower , 6 - 12 10 9 / l and 300 - 700 10 9 / l . both mentioned ranges vary in each pig . the blood cell analyses were performed with a medonic ® ca 570 coulter counter . leucopenia and thrombocytopenia were defined as cell / platelets counts , considerably lower than the minimum number mentioned above , preferably for more than one day . the temperature , leukocyte and thrombocyte counts , and seroconversion of the sentinels were the parameters used to detect virus transmission from the inoculated animals to these animals . at post - mortem , tissue samples were collected from the following organs : tonsil , spleen , kidney and ileum . they were tested by direct immunofluorescent technique for the presence of viral antigen . cryostat sections ( 4 μm thick , two per organ ) from these tissue samples were fixed and incubated with a polyclonal swine anti - pestivirus fitc - conjugated serum . after washing , the sections were read under a fluorescent microscope . results were expressed as positive (= fluorescence ) or negative (= no fluorescence ). serum of all pigs was collected at 0 , 2 and 3 weeks post - vaccination and at death . samples were stored at − 20 ° c . and assayed in a virus neutralization test ( vnt ) and the ceditest ® csfv elisa , an elisa for detecting csf - specific antibody . csfv - neutralizing antibody titres in serum were determined in a microtitre system . serial two - fold dilutions of serum were mixed with an equal volume of a csfv ( strain brescia ) suspension which contained 30 - 300 tcid 50 . after incubation for 1 hour at 37 ° c . in a co 2 incubator , approximately 25 . 000 pk 15 cells per well were added . after four days , the microtitre plates were treated as mentioned above and read microscopically . the csfv - neutralizing titer was expressed as the reciprocal of the highest dilution that neutralized all virus . determination of the 95 % protective dose was based on the assumption that a csfv neutralizing ab titer of ≧ 50 stands for full protection . for animal numbers throughout this section compare tables 1 or 2 . vaccination did not have any adverse effect on the pigs , food uptake and body temperature remained normal . among groups a and c , mild diarrhea , anorexia and depression was seen on day 3 after vaccination . one pig from group a ( no . 448 ) vomited regularly during the whole period and stayed behind in growth . pig no . 438 from group b vomited once . the temperature of pig no . 434 ( group c , sentinel ) was slightly elevated ; this animal was suffering from lameness of the right hind leg . food uptake increased during the period between vaccination and challenge from 3 to 6 kg per group / day . unvaccinated control animals developed signs of csf on three ( no . 59 ) and six ( no . 60 ) days after challenge : fever , huddling , shivering , loss of appetite and depression were seen till death , 10 days after challenge . furthermore , the animals developed cyanosis , paresis posterior , diarrhea and severe vomiting . both animals were killed , being moribund . all the pigs vaccinated with 2 μg of e2 ( group a ) developed signs of disease 2 - 3 days after challenge , consisting mainly of fever , huddling , depression and anorexia . fever lasted from 2 - 10 days and maximum temperatures ( t max ) varied from 40 . 7 - 42 . 2 ° c . from day seven onwards among pigs 443 - 446 , fever disappeared and the food uptake increased towards the amount before challenge . but pig 448 was found dead on day nine and pig 447 developed acute csf ( convulsions , paresis posterior ) and was killed when moribund on the same day . both sentinels remained normal until day 7 - 9 after challenge , after which they developed acute csf and were killed when moribund on day 20 . in the animals of groups b and c , clinical signs and duration of disease were more mild as the payload of e2 antigen increased . in group b ( 435 - 439 ), fever lasted to day 27 and t max varied between 40 . 2 and 41 . 7 ° c . pig no . 436 resisted the challenge with very mild clinical signs . one pig ( no . 440 ) died from acute csf after 18 days , killed moribund . the remaining five animals from group b recovered . both sentinels remained normal until day 11 - 12 after challenge , after which they developed acute csf and were killed on day 20 . in group c , mild fever was seen in two ( 430 , 431 ) out of six animals from day4 - 6 and t max varied from 40 . 5 - 41 . 2 ° c . no clinical signs were noted except slight depression on day six after challenge . as before challenge , pig no . 430 vomited . from group a , only one pig ( 450 ), the sentinel , developed clear leucopenia and thrombocytopenia . pig nos . 445 and 446 were thrombocytopenic on day 7 and 10 after challenge , pig 449 on day 10 and 14 . one pig ( 440 ) from group b developed leucopenia and thrombocytopenia , the others remained normal . both sentinels showed signs of a developing thrombocytopenia on day 14 . leucopenia and thrombocytopenia were not detected in group c , including the sentinels . both control animals ( nos . 59 and 60 ) became thrombocytopenic from day 7 onwards . back titration of the inoculum rendered a virus titer of 2 . 55 tcid50 / ml after return from the stable . csfv viral antigen ( table 1 ) was detected in all of the selected tissue samples of the controls and sentinels from groups a and b . one out of six inoculated animals was positive in groups a and b , and none in group c , including the sentinels . seroconversion for csfv was defined as a titer ≧ 25 in the vnt . the result of the back titration , in order to determine the amount of brescia virus used in the vnt , was 41 tcid50 / well . none of the controls ( d ) or sentinel animals seroconverted during the experiment ( table 2 ). two out of six animals from group a had seroconverted after three weeks . four out of six animals boostered after challenge ( table 2 ). groups b and c had seroconverted on day 21 after vaccination and all the animals boostered after challenge , the latter only indicating a successful replication of the challenge virus in the animal . the pd 95 dose per animal was determined as 32 μg of e2 in 2 ml of doe adjuvant given once . with this dose , clinical signs of disease after a challenge with a highly virulent csfv strain remained minimal and no spread of virus to contact animals occurred . in summary , four groups ( a - d ) of six pigs were vaccinated by intramuscular route with , respectively , 32 ( a ), 8 ( b ), 2 ( c ) and 0 μg ed ( d ) per 2 ml adjuvant ( doe ). two non - vaccinated pigs were kept within each group ( a - c ) to detect virus excretion causing contact infections ( sentinels ). after three weeks , the animals were challenged by intranasal route with 100 ld 50 of the highly virulent csfv strain brescia . clinical , virological and serological parameters were measured in order to assess the efficacy of this e2 sub - unit vaccine . as expected , animals in group c resisted the challenge better than the animals from the other groups . no viral antigen was detected in tissue samples from the animals inoculated with the highest dose of e2 ( 32 μg ) and disease was absent in this group . the pd 95 dose was calculated on the assumption that an npla titer of ≧ 50 ( on 21 days after vaccination ) gives full protection ( no spread of virus ). this resulted in a pd 95 dose of 32 μg / animal . to further assess the level of protection against a challenge with 100 ld 50 virulent csfv at 2 and 3 weeks after vaccination , two groups ( a - b ) of six pigs were vaccinated by the intramuscular route with 32 μg of e2 . two non - vaccinated pigs were kept within each group ( a - b ) to detect virus excretion from the vaccinated pigs causing contact infections . after two ( a ) and three ( b ) weeks , the vaccinated animals and control animals were challenged by intranasal route with 100 ld 50 of the highly virulent csfv strain brescia . clinical , virological and serological parameters were measured in order to assess the efficacy of the e2 subunit vaccine two and three weeks after vaccination . as expected , group b resisted the challenge with less clinical symptoms than group a . transmission of virus to the sentinels occurred only in group a and in the leucofractions of all the animals from both groups virus was detected . only one animal in group b had seroconverted on day 14 after vaccination ( no . 414 ). from the same group , one animal had not seroconverted after 21 days but was protected , had fever for only two days , and seroconverted within eleven days after challenge . only the controls and one of the sentinels ( group a ) developed leucopenia and thrombocytopenia . no viral antigen was detected in any of the tissue samples from the animals of groups a and b . concluding , all animals were protected against the challenge at two and three weeks after vaccination with a single dose . to further assess the level of protection against a challenge with 100 ld 50 virulent csfv at 3 and 6 months after vaccination , two groups ( a - b ) of six pigs were vaccinated by the intramuscular route with 32 μg of e2 . two nonvaccinated pigs were kept within each group ( a - b ) to detect virus excretion from the vaccinated pigs causing contact infections . after three ( a ) and six ( b ) months , the vaccinated animals and control animals were challenged by intranasal route with 100 ld 50 of the highly virulent csfv strain brescia . clinical , virological and serological parameters were measured in order to assess the efficacy of the e2 subunit vaccine after this period . all the animals from group a and b resisted the challenge with minor clinical symptoms . only the controls developed leucopenia and thrombocytopenia . transmission of virus to the sentinels did not occur . virus was not detected in any of the leucofractions selected from both groups . only one animal in group b had seroconverted on day 28 after vaccination ( no . 1983 ). no viral antigen was detected in any of the tissue samples from the animals of groups a , b and the sentinels . in conclusion , all animals were protected against the challenge on three and six months after vaccination with a single dose , and virus transmission did not occur . bvdv strains 4800 , 150022 and 178003 were used to generate experimental e2 subunit vaccines . the e2 genes of these strains were expressed in the baculovirus expression system ( hulst et al ., 1993 , j . viral . 67 : 5435 - 5442 ; p . a . van rijn et al ., 1996 , i ; gen . virol ., 77 : 2737 - 2745 ). the spodoptera frugiperda cell line , sf21 , was used for propagation of the recombinant baculoviruses and the production of e2 proteins . sf21 cells were grown at 28 ° c . in serum free sf900 medium ( gibco brl ). confluent monolayers of sf21 cells were infected with recombinant baculovirus at a multiplicity of infection of 5 tcid 50 ( 50 % tissue culture infective dose ) per cell . after 4 - 5 days , the cultures showed a cytopathic effect of 80 - 90 %. the cells were centrifuged for 10 minutes at 1500 * g and the supernatant , containing baculovirus and e2 , was collected and stored at − 20 ° c . to inactivate baculovirus , a 2 - bromoethylimine bromide ( bei ) treatment was performed according to standard procedures . briefly , 600 μl bei and 600 μl 1 m naoh were mixed . after 30 minutes at 20 ° c ., 150 ml supernatant was added and stirred for 24 hours at 20 ° c . then , 20 ml of 25 % thiosulfate was added . inactivation of the baculovirus was confirmed by titration of the supernatant on sf21 cells . experimental bvdv vaccines consisted of the supernatants containing e2 in a double water - oil emulsion . the oil contained 90 % marcol 52 ( esso ) and 10 % montanide 80 ( seppic ). the water fraction ( pbs +) contained 98 % phosphate - buffered saline , 2 % montanox 80 ( seppic ) and 100 ppm thiomersal . supernatant , oil and pbs + were used in the proportion of 10 : 11 : 10 . first , supernatant and oil were emulsified and then pbs + was added and emulsified . a control vaccine was similarly prepared of the supernatant of sf21 cells infected with wild - type baculovirus . after preparation , the vaccines were found to be sterile . our preliminary assumption that the antigen amount in the 3 vaccines would be similar because of the comparability of the expressed proteins , was incorrect . the differences in antigen amount are probably caused by differences in expression in the insect cells . vaccine 150022 contained 55 μg of e2 per dose and was protective for the fetus after 2 × vaccination ( day 0 , and day 21 ). ( brusche et al . 1997 , vaccine in press .) vaccine 4800 and vaccine 178003 contained 12 μg and 17 μg of e2 per dose , respectively , and were not protective for the fetus . this result suggests a correlation between the amount of e2 protein and fetal protection . however , a difference in immunogenicity of e2 glycoproteins and inability of the challenge strains to cross the placenta may also account for the different outcomes of the challenge . none of the vaccines protected against heterologous bvdv challenge . the results of this study are promising for further development of bvdv subunit vaccines , since we have shown that fetal protection can be achieved by vaccination with envelope glycoprotein e2 . furthermore , it is a marker vaccine which allows discrimination between vaccinated animals and animals infected with a field virus strain . this is advantageous in the light of future bvdv eradication programs . the developed production process is aimed at achieving optimal heterologous protein production encoded by genes inserted into baculovirus in insect cells . the baculovirus expression vector system ( bevs ) is very well suited for producing different recombinant proteins , since correct protein folding and accurate post - translational processing results in biologically active proteins for animal and human applications . the baculovirus contains 2 nonessential genes , which are transcribed from very powerful promoters , the p10 and the polyhedrin promoters . deletion mutagenesis of the p10 gene ( van oers et al ., j . gen virol . 74 : 563 - 574 ; 1993 ) showed that it is not essential for virus replication in cell culture . p10 , however , is playing a role in cell lysis . absence of the p10 protein causes the infected cells to remain intact and prevents the release of polyhedra from infected cells , thereby reducing reinfection rates but not infectivity , per se . the products of the genes ( p10 or fibrillin and polyhedrin ) are expressed late during the infection phase . replacing these genes by the gene of the required protein can ( in the case of the polyhedrin promoter ) theoretically result in yields of up to 50 % of total protein production of the insect cell culture , resulting in expression levels of over 1 gram polyhedrin protein per liter in culture ( maiorella et al ., ( 1988 ) large - scale insect cell culture for recombinant protein production , bio / technology , 6 , 1406 - 1410 ). the multiplicity of infection ( moi , ratio of virus density per ml and cell density per ml ) is a key parameter for the optimization of the protein production . an obvious reason for infection with a low multiplicity of infection is to keep the virus inoculum as small as possible . if the infection takes place at a density of 2 million cells per ml at an moi of 0 . 1 in a 50l fermentor , then 1 * 10 10 viruses are needed . this would require an inoculum of around 1 liter . furthermore , an extra production step is needed to make such an inoculum . two major drawbacks of attached cultures are the inefficient medium usage and oxygen limitation . due to the fact that the solubility of oxygen in aqueous fluids is relatively poor , oxygen will be the limiting substrate for the cells in monolayer cultures . the determining factor for maximum cell density in static cultures is the available surface . once the surface is covered with a monolayer of cells , cell growth will come to a halt . this results in a cell density of approximately 1 * 10 6 cells / ml medium . in suspension cultures , no oxygen limitation is present and the availability of other substrates is the limiting factor for cell density . this limitation occurs at a higher cell density than oxygen limitation and , therefore , the cell density becomes higher than in static cultures . oxygen limitation is prevented by using an oxygen electrode to monitor the dissolved oxygen concentration . once it drops below a certain value , oxygen is automatically added to the suspension , either by sparging or by addition via the head space of the fermentor . moderate stirring of the suspension guarantees a homogenous culture in which no substrate gradients are built up and in which the cells are not subjected to too high shear forces . furthermore , stirring results in an efficient transfer of viruses from infected to non - infected cells , giving a higher efficiency of virus infection of cells . since initially only about 0 . 1 - 0 . 3 % of the cells are infected , the remaining 99 . 7 - 99 . 9 % of cells are allowed to grow and multiply . virus particles that are produced in the infected cells are released 12 - 20 hours post - infection ( dee , k . u . and shuler , m . l . 1997 . biotechnology progress , 13 , 14 - 24 ). the number of released virus particles per cell is 100 - 200 , which can infect hitherto non - infected cells in a new cycle . it will take several cycles before enough virus particles are produced to infect all cells present in the culture . the aim is to complete the protein production of the final infection passage before the medium is exhausted and all metabolic processes come to a halt . it is also undesirable to achieve complete infection at a cell density that is suboptimal , for then the medium will not be used efficiently , resulting in a lower volumetric yield of the heterologous protein . the whole process of virus infection can be checked visually , due to the fact that the polyhedrin gene is still present . virus infection can be observed as dense protein particles that accumulate in the cell nucleus . to prevent shear damage to the cells , pluronic f - 68 is added to the medium to a final concentration of 0 . 2 %. furthermore , if necessary , antifoam a is added to prevent excessive foaming , which also results in cell death . the total amount of antifoam a added to a 50l culture is on average 20 ml . the optimal virus density to infect the cells can be calculated . this density depends on the growth rate of the cells , the time post - infection at which the new virus particles are released , and the number of new virus particles produced per infected cell . illustrating the method provided by the invention is the production of the pestivirus e2 protein . although this - protein was known as a potent antigen , e2 fragment production for a vaccine or a diagnostic test is not always successful . despite a pd50 as low as 2 jig ( when using a particularly immunogenic e2 fragment ), a problem is how to accrue sufficient amounts of vaccine doses with sufficient antigenic mass in a commercially attractive way to enable protective vaccination of large groups of animals by one single vaccination per animal . this is particularly relevant for csfv vaccination . when applied , csfv vaccination generally is performed during a mass campaign in an area where an outbreak of osfv has occurred . this asks for rapid vaccination of large numbers of animals in a relatively short period . in such a mass campaign , it is of imminent importance that an adequate protection level ( the number of pigs that are protected against the wild - type virus infection ) is achieved rapidly . waiting for several weeks after a first vaccination for a second vaccination in order to achieve protection greatly hampers and delays the control of the disease . differences between various methods to produce the recombinantly expressed e2 protein , even when comparing e2 fragments expressed in baculovirus , exist . in earlier reported e2 protein production cultures , the e2 protein fragment yield varied between 20 - 90 μg / ml ( hulst et al ., j . vir . 5435 - 5442 , 1993 ; hulst and moormann , cytotechnology 20 : 271 - 279 , 1996 ), further necessitating immunoaffinity - purification with monoclonal antibodies to obtain the necessary and relevant e2 antigenic mass for single shot vaccination . another method ( using a fragment of e2 described in ep 0389034 ), which uses e2 harvested from the supernatant of insect cells without further immunoaffinity purification , results in an e2 - based vaccine that is injected twice before a satisfying ( protective ) immune response is obtained . these problems , among others , relate to a low concentration of the relevant antigenic substance , in this case the e2 protein fragments , in the starting material , e . g ., the cell culture supernatant , from which the vaccine is prepared . in theory , one can further accumulate antigenic mass by purification and condensation methods known in the art ; however , this does not lead to a commercially attractive vaccine production but causes high costs per dose . production runs using a method provided by the invention in our 50l fermentor routinely results in a yield of around 200 - 300 μg / ml csfv e2 protein fragments , enough to theoretically vaccinate 100 , 000 animals per culture . cells are infected at a density of 0 . 5 to 1 . 5 * 10 6 cells / ml with 1 to 10 ml virus inoculum containing approximately 10 7 tcid 50 / ml . the culture is preferably harvested when & gt ; 50 - 80 % of the cells show cpe . this is about 100 - 150 hours post infection . in earlier e2 protein production cultures , cells were synchronously infected with an moi & gt ; 1 , resulting in a three - fold lower protein yield than as provided by the present invention . in a method provided by the invention , a 50l fermentor is inoculated with 5l of cell suspension grown in a 5l fermentor or 10l of all suspension , grown in a 10l fermentor . the initial cell density is around 3 * 10 5 cells / ml . cells are grown to the calculated cell density before virus is added to the suspension . downstream processing starts with the removal of the cells and polyhedra by microfiltration . a hollow fiber microfiltration device is connected to the fermentor and the material is pumped through the filtration module with a pore size of 0 . 22 μm . the retentate flow is recirculated over the fermentor and the permeate flow is collected in a 100l vessel . when filtration is completed , the antigen solution , which is now cell - free but still contains infectious baculoviruses , is inactivated in the 100l vessel . generally , 2 - bromoethyl - ammonium bromide ( bea ) is added to the suspension to a final concentration of 8 - 12 μm . the ph is raised from about 5 . 8 to 8 . 2 - 8 . 7 by adding 2m naoh . this ph shift converts bea to bei ( 2 - bromoethyl - imminebromide ). this is the dna - inactivating agent . ph is carefully monitored and regulated at 6 - 10 and the temperature is kept at 34 - 39 . after 6 hours of inactivation , the antigen solution is transferred to a second inactivation vessel . this ensures that all material in the vessel has been in contact with bei and thus will be inactivated . drops of fluid - containing virus , but not containing bei , could be present in the first vessel , but not in the second . baculoviruses present in a concentration of 10 − 4 - 10 − 7 pfu / ml are degraded to a value & lt ; 10 31 7 pfu / ml (& lt ; 1 virus particle per 10 m 3 ). this is the same norm as used for viral vaccines that are based on viruses that are able to infect the host animal ( like fmd ). pigs are not hosts for baculoviruses . the inactivated antigen bulk is stored at & lt ;− 20 ° c . until it is formulated into a water - oil - water emulsion . a single dose containing 32 μg e2 ( dose volume 2 ml ) is sufficient to give protection (& gt ; pd95 ) against classical swine fever , from 2 weeks up to at least 6 months after vaccination . the production process is designed in such a way that scaling - up of the process is straightforward and use of 250l or even larger fermentors is possible . scale - up of a static culture production is also straightforward ; just use more tissue culture flasks . however , the total protein production routinely achieved in the 50l fermentor would take approximately 7000 t175 tissue culture flasks . cell growth and infection can be monitored and regulated better in a fermentor , since an oxygen and ph electrode are present . in tissue culture flasks , flask - to - flask variation is probably present , but it cannot be quantified . inactivation is monitored and regulated much more accurately in the vessels than was done in the static culture production . volumetric production levels of other proteins expressed in the bevs ( in our institute ) also improve considerably if cells are grown with a method provided by the invention . for example , the yield of bovine fsh increased by a factor of 3 - 4 using a 10l fermentor . cells were co - infected at an moi of 0 . 003 of each of 2 recombinant baculoviruses at a cell density of 1 . 1 * 10 6 cells / ml . the yield of different e2 proteins of bvdv and of e rns proteins or bvdv and / or csfv in suspension cultures in shake flasks increased three - fold . the method is also applicable to other recombinant proteins .
the invention relates to a method of increasing protein expression in baculo vector virus expression systems . the invention provides a method to produce a recombinant protein in insect cell culture which comprises selecting a recombinant baculovirus expressing said protein , growing insect cells in growth medium in a culture vessel and infecting the cells with an inoculum of at least one baculovirus at a cell density of 1 × 10 5 to 5 × 10 6 cells / ml with an m . o . i of & lt ; 0 . 01 . the invention also provides a method to produce recombinant pestivirus e2 or e m9 protein or fragments thereof in insect cell culture characterized by a final concentration of the protein fragments in the growth medium at harvest of at least 100 μg / ml . the invention also provides a method of producing recombinant fsh , α - units and / or β - units , and complexes and fragments thereof , at a concentration in the growth medium at harvest of at least 15 μ / ml .