Unraveling the Impact of Vaccination on Rinderpest Virus Evolution

Rinderpest virus (RPV) was historically one of the most devastating pathogens affecting cattle, with a global impact unmatched by any other livestock disease.

Although largely eradicated in Europe by the late 19th century, RPV continued causing catastrophic outbreaks in Africa and Asia, leading to severe economic and agricultural consequences.

The introduction of a vaccine in the 1960s marked a turning point, ultimately leading to the official eradication of RPV in 2011, a landmark achievement in veterinary and human medicine.

However, the effects of vaccination on the evolutionary dynamics of RPV remain unexplored.My MSCA proposal aims to investigate how vaccination efforts influenced the evolution of RPV.

I hypothesize that widespread vaccine use exerted selective pressures on the virus, leading to genetic bottlenecks and reduced genomic diversity over time and across regions.

I also suspect that the staggered rollout of vaccination programs worldwide resulted in the emergence of distinct regional RPV lineages.To test these hypotheses, I will analyze historical RPV samples, expanding the genetic dataset by sequencing additional genomes from a rare collection of 45 European pathological specimens collected before vaccination.

This will be complemented by analyzing existing sequences from Asia and Africa.

I will develop innovative phylodynamic models to account for time-dependent evolutionary rates and lineage dynamics, providing a comprehensive view of the virus’s evolutionary response to vaccination.By combining my solid track record in virus-host interactions and paleogenetics with the host's extensive expertise in virus phylodynamics, this fellowship will provide me with the key scientific and transferable skills necessary to achieve this research agenda and fulfill the outlined objectives.

It will also enable me to establish myself as a research leader in the field and make substantial contributions to the study of viral evolution.