The goals of this project are:

- to finalize the administrative procedures necessary to obtain the permission to work with Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) at CODA-CERVA.

- to perform an experimental infection study whereby pigs will be infected with JEV via three inoculation routes (oronasal inoculation to mimic the vector-free transmission and intradermal inoculation of virus alone or of virus combined with mosquito salivary gland extract to mimic vector mediated transmission). A maximum of samples will be collected during the trial that will allow to study the pathogenesis and immune response in detail.

- to study the pathogenesis of JEV in pigs infected via 3 inoculation routes by performing qPCRs and virus isolations on blood, swabs and orgnas collected during the infection experiment.

- to study the development of the humoral immune response via PRNT tests.

- to perform a preliminary analysis of infiltrating immune cells in the tonsils upon JEV infection via IHC.

Besides the implementation of diagnostic techniques for JEV at CODA-CERVA and acquiring knowledge on JEV pathogenesis, this research will allow to collect samples that can be used in the future to closely study the role of tonsils in JEV pathogenesis and to evaluate the importance of the cellular immunity upon JEV infection. It will also allow to identify an appropriate challenge model that can in the future be used for comparative vaccine trials.