A PASTEURELLA VACCINE

Abstract: A vaccine for immunizing animals against diseases caused by microorganisms producing an osteolytic toxin comprising an immunologically effective amount of a recombinant, immunogenic, detoxified Pasteurella multocida toxin or toxin analogue, the vaccine being encoded by a nucleotide sequence coding for a Pasteurella multocida toxin or toxin analogue which is inserted in an expression vector capable of replicating in a suitable host microorganism in which the said sequence may be expressed. Optionally, the produced toxin or toxin analogue is subjected to posttranscriptional modifications to provide the detoxified toxin or toxin analogue. Alternatively, the nucleotide sequence may be modified prior to insertion into the expression vector so as to provide the toxin or toxin analogue in a detoxified form. Furthermore, the use of a monoclonal antibody against Pasteurella multocida toxin or toxin analogue, a labelled DNA sequence homologous to a DNA sequence coding for a toxin or toxin analogue, and the toxin or toxin analogue per se as diagnostic agents are described.

Description: A PASTEURELLA VACCINE FIELD OF INVENTION The present invention relates to a vaccine for immunizing animals against diseases caused by microorganisms producing an osteolytic toxin, a DNA sequence encoding a Pasteurella multocida toxin useful for producing the toxin and as a diagnostic agent, methods of pro¬ ducing and isolating a P. multocida toxin, use of a P. mul tocida toxin, a monoclonal antibody directed against a P. multocida toxin, a diagnostic agent comprising said monoclonal antibody and the use of said monoclonal ancibody for a variety of diagnostic and other purpo¬ ses. TECHNICAL BACKGROUND Atrophic rhinitis is a disease which profoundly affects the bone structure of the porcine snout. The etiological agent which is cur- rently considered to be the cause of growth retarding progressive atrophic rhinitis is toxigenic (toxin-producing) strains of P. multo¬ cida which colonize the nasal cavity of pigs (Pedersen and Barfod, 1981, (ref. 1), Rutter and Rojas, 1982, (ref. 2), Elling and Peder¬ sen, 1985, (ref. 3), Pedersen et al. 1988 (ref. 4). It has been shown that the nasal mucosa are more easily colonized by P. multocida when the resistance to infection is lower such as when the pigs are con- comitantly infected with Bordetella bronchiseptica or when the nasal mucosa are exposed to a mild chemical irritant (cf. Pedersen and Elling, 1984, (ref. 5). The pathological effects of P. multocida infection may be ascribed to a toxin produced by this bacterium. The toxin which has an apparent molecular weight of 143 kd and an actual molecular weight of 146.5 kd induces bone resorption (osteolysis) of the nasal turbinates and other bone structures in the nasal cavity by stimulating osteoclast activity iniporcine turbinate bones, and causes impaired osteoblastic bone formation. The disease is of major economic importance to pig breeders all over the world, since apart from the pathological effects on the nasal (and occasionally facial) bones noted above, it causes a slower growth rate of the infected pigs and consequently higher production costs. Attempts have therefore been made to reduce the occurrence and the significance of P. multocida infection, for instance by the establishment of SPF (specific pathogen free) pigs via cesarean sec¬ tion, or by antibiotic treatment of infected animals or prophylactic vaccination. Known vaccines for the immunization of animals, principally pigs, against diseases ascribable to P. multocida infection, especially atrophic rhinitis, comprise killed P. multocida cells optionally com¬ bined with killed Bordeteila bronchisepcica cells (cf. EP 85 469) and/or an inactivated (usually by heat treatment or addition of formaldehyde) toxin-containing extract of toxigenic P. multocida. Vaccines of the latter type are commercially available from Northern Drugs & Chemicals Ltd. , Copenhagen, Denmark, under the trademark Atrinord®, as well as from Intervet International BV, Boxmeer, Hol¬ land, under the trademark Nobi-vacART®. The present inventors contemplate that an improved immunogenic effect relative to the known vaccine preparations may be obtained by using a purified and suitably modified toxin preparation for vaccination pur¬ poses either to replace the conventional vaccines or as a constituent thereof. The purification of P. multocida toxin has previously been described. Thus, Foged et al., 1987, (ref. 6) disclose the purification of the toxin by chromatography and polyaerylamide gel electrophoresis. The purified toxin is used solely for studying its toxic and pathological effects. Kamp et al. , 1987, (ref. 7) also disclose the purification of the P. multocida toxin for the purpose of clinical studies. They suggest that the purified toxin may be used as an antigen to raise specific antibodies useful for serological tests. Nakai- et al., 1984, (ref. 8) disclose a method of purifying the P. multocida toxin by chromatography and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. They further disclose the production of polyclonal antibodies directed against the purified toxin which they use to analyse the purity of the purified toxin. It is suggested that the antibodies may be used to further study the role of the toxin in atrophic rhinitis. None of these publications suggest the use of a purified toxin as a component of a vaccine for immunizing animals against Pasteurella infection, and this is believed to be a novel concept. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, in one aspect the present invention relates to a vaccine for immunizing an animal, including a human being, against diseases caused by microorganisms producing an ostεolytic toxin, the vaccine comprising an immunogenically effective amount of a recombinant, immunogenic, detoxified P. multocida toxin or toxin analogue together with an immunologically acceptable carrier or vehicle. For the preparation of the known vaccines, a toxigenic Pasteurella strain is cultivated and the toxin is isolated from the culture medium or from a bacterial extract followed by detoxification by, for instance, thermal or chemical treatment. Compared to this procedure, the production of the toxin or toxin analogue by recombinant DNA techniques has a number of advantages: it is possible to produce the toxin or toxin analogue by growing a non-pathogenic organism, the toxin or toxin analogue may be produced in higher quantities than those produced by wild-type P. mul tocida strains, for instance by using a strong promoter to induce a high level of expression of the toxin gene or by using a high copy number vector for cloning the toxin gene, and it is possible to produce the toxin or toxin analogue in a detoxified form, e.g. by subjecting the gene encoding the toxin to treatment with a mutagen, or by deleting a part of the nucleotide sequence coding for the toxin or toxin analogue, substituting one or more nucleotides in the sequence, etc. The recombinant toxin or toxin analogue may be used in substantially pure form in the vaccine of the invention but may also be employed as a crude or partially purified preparation. In the present context, the term "substantially pure" is understood to mean that the vaccine is substantially free from other immunogeni¬ cally active components the presence of which might give rise to ad¬ verse immune reactions in the animals immunized with the vaccine and, most importantly, that no other components of the microorganisms pro¬ ducing the toxin or toxin analogue, such as cell debris or cellular proteins apart from the toxin or toxin analogue itself or a protein or polypeptide to which the toxin or toxin analogue is fused (vide below) are present in the vaccine preparation. A high purity of the detoxified toxin or toxin analogue is believed to result in a high antitoxin response on immunization with the vaccine of the invention and a lower dosage of the toxin or toxin analogue may consequently be required for" immunization purposes than that used in crude or parti¬ ally purified vaccine preparations. A substantially pure toxin or toxin analogue has the added advantage that the exact concentration thereof in a given vaccine preparation is known so that an exact dosage may be administered to the animal in question. The microorganism producing an osteolytic toxin (i.e. a toxin direct¬ ly or indirectly involved in bone resor tion) against which the vac- cine confers immunity is preferably P. multocida. Other microorga¬ nisms which have shown osteolytic effects or regulation of specific markers of bone metabolism are e.g. Actinomyces viscosus and Borde- tella pertussis (Trummel et al. , 1979, (ref. 9) and Price (ref. 10). Due to the toxic activity of the P. multocida toxin, it is not pos- sible to use the native toxin in a vaccine of the invention. Rather, it must be present in detoxified form. The term "detoxified" should be understood to mean that the toxic activity has been removed from at least a sufficient number, but not necessarily all, of the toxin molecules present in the vaccine preparation so that the vaccine, when administered to an animal to be immunized, will not produce any adverse toxic effects in the animal in question, while still giving rise to' a satisfactory immune response. The detoxification of the P. multocida toxin or toxin analogue may be carried out in a variety of ways. Thus, it is possible to subject the toxin or toxin analogue to thermal treatment, the toxin being known to be heat labile and to be inactivated (i.e. detoxified) at 70°C. Furthermore, the toxin or toxin analogue may be subjected to treat¬ ment with a chemical, such as formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde or a suitable proteoiytic enzyme, e.g. trypsin. Detoxification may also be brought about by mutagenizing the gene coding for the P. multocida toxin or toxin analogue by means of, for instance, ultraviolet radia¬ tion, ionizing radiation or a chemical mutagen such as mitomycin C, 5-bromouracil, methylmethane sulphonate, nitrogen mustard or a nitro- furan. Furthermore, the toxin may be detoxified by substitution, deletion, addition or insertion of one or more amino acids in the toxin or toxin analogue, or by substitution, addition, deletion or insertion of one or more base pairs in the nucleotide sequence coding for the toxin or toxin analogue, or a combination of these measures. In contrast to detoxification by thermal or chemical treatment, the genetic procedure as the obvious advantage of resulting in a uniform population of equally detoxified molecules. It should be noted that the terms "substitution, deletion, addition or insertion" should be interpreted with reference to the full-length toxin protein. Thus, "substitution" is intended to mean the replace- ment of any one or more amino acids or nucleotides in the full amino acid or nucleotide sequence with one or more others, "addition" is understood to mean the addition of one or more amino acids or nucleo¬ tides at either end of the full amino acid or nucleotide sequence, "insertion" is intended to mean the introduction of one or more amino acids or nucleotides within the full amino acid or nucleotide sequen¬ ce, and "deletion" is intended to indicate that one or more amino acids or nucleotides have been deleted from the full amino acid or nucleotide sequence whether at either end of the sequence or at any suitable point within it. It should be understood that the detoxifi- cation of the toxin or toxin analogue may also be brought about by a combination of two or more of these procedures. The term "toxin analogue" is used in the present context to indicate a protein or polypeptide of a similar amino acid composition or se¬ quence as the P. multocida toxin, allowing for variations which do not have an adverse effect on the immunogenicity of the analogue. The analogous polypeptide or protein may be derived from a microorga¬ nism of another species than P. multocida or may be partially or completely of synthetic origin. The analogous polypeptide or protein may also be one which comprises at least one epitope reactive with anti-P. multocida toxin antibodies found in samples from individuals with atrophic rhinitis and/or which elicits antibodies reactive with native P. multocida toxin. The term is further intended to mean any immunogenic subsequence, functional equivalent or derivative of the toxin. The term "immunogenic subsequence" is intended to indicate a sequence of the full-length toxin which from the outset is produced in a truncated form relative to the full-length toxin, protrein or which subsequent to production of the full-length protein is generated, for instance by proteolytic cleavage thereof or by expression of a nucle- otide sequence shorter than the full nucleotide sequence encoding P. multocida toxin. The minimum subsequence is one which at least com¬ prises a relevant epitope of the toxin, i.e. an epitope which gives rise to a relevant immune response in an animal immunized with the vaccine of the invention. The term "functional equivalent" is intended to include all immunoge- nically active substances with the ability to evoke an immune respon¬ se in animals to which a vaccine containing the equivalent has been administered which is similar to the immune response evoked by the detoxified P. multocida toxin, in that it is able to confer immunity to diseases caused by microorganisms producing an osteolytic toxin. The functional equivalent may be derived from a microorganism of another species than P. multocida or may partially or completely be of synthetic origin. It should be understood that the similarities between the P. multocida toxin and the functional equivalent are qualitative rather than quantitative, relating to the nature rather than the level of activity of the functional equivalent. The term "derivative" is understood to mean a modification of the toxin such as one produced by substitution, insertion, addition or deletion of one or more amino acids or nucleotides or a combination of these measures, as defined above, or by fusion with another poly¬ peptide. In a further aspect, the present invention relates to a DNA fragment comprising a nucleotide sequence coding for a P. multocida toxin or toxin analogue, as defined above. The DNA fragment may for instance be used in a method of preparing the toxin or toxin analogue by recombinant DNA techniques or as a diagnostic agent (i.e. a DNA probe) . In a still further aspect, the present invention relates to a mono- clonal antibody which is directed against or reactive with a P. multocida toxin or a toxin analogue as defined above, or a fragment of said antibody. It should be noted that the antibody may be reac¬ tive with both the toxic and detoxified toxin, thus making it useful for a variety of diagnostic, immunization and isolation purposes as will be described in further detail below. DETAILED DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION The toxin produced by P. multocida (in the following occasionally abbreviated to PMT) which, as noted above, is generally believed to be the causative agent of porcine atrophic rhinitis, has in the prior literature been variously termed "dermonecrotic toxin", "osteolytic toxin", "turbinate atrophy toxin" and "heat labile exotoxin" , but it would appear to be the same toxin as the amino acid composition, iso- electric point and biological activities of the variously termed toxins show basic similarities, although minor variations in the pro- perties of toxins isolated from different strains of P. multocida appear to exist. The estimated amino acid composition of PMT (as deduced from the DNA sequence) is as follows: Ala is found 76 times - 5 .91% Cys is found 8 times — 0 .62% Asp is found 71 times - 5. .53% Glu is found 100 times - 7, ,78% Phe is found 69 times — 5. .37% Gly is found 71 times - 5.53% His is found 19 times - 1.48% He is found 92 times - 7.16% Lys- is found 70 times 5.45% Leu is found 127 times - 9.88% Met is found 36 times - 2.80% Asn is found 73 times - 5.68% Pro is found 62 times - 4.82% Gin is found 56 times - 4.36% Arg is found 58 times - 4.51% Ser is found 97 times - 7.55% Thr is found 66 times - 5.14% Val is found. 63 times — 4.90% Trp is found 18 times - 1.40% Tyr is found 53 times - 4.12% The total number of amino acid residues is 1285, and the full-length toxin has a molecular weight of 146.5 kd. The recombinant toxin or toxin analogue used in the vaccine of the invention may more specifically be one encoded by a DNA sequence sub- stantially as shown in Fig. 10 (a)-(j) or a subsequence thereof en¬ coding an immunogenic subsequence of the toxin or toxin analogue. It should be noted that the amino acid sequence deduced from the DNA sequence is also shown in Fig. 10 (a)-(j) above the DNA sequence. A suitable analogue may be one which has a DNA sequence which differs from that of the native toxin by one or more base pairs and which may be derived by substituting one or more nucleotides in the toxin DNA sequence either giving rise to the same amino acid sequence, but where the nucleotide substitutions make the sequence conform to the codon usage of the microorganism in which the sequence is inserted, or giving rise to a somewhat different amino acid sequence which, however, is functionally similar to that of the native toxin. Apart from the toxin or toxin analogue as defined above, the vaccine of the invention also comprises an immunologically acceptable carrier or vehicle. This vehicle may be any vehicle usually employed in the preparation of vaccines, e.g. a diluent such as isotonic saline, suspending agent etc. The vaccine may be prepared by mixing an immu- nogenically effective amount of the toxin or toxin analogue with the vehicle in an amount resulting in the desired concentration of the toxin or toxin analogue in the vaccine preparation. Although the amount of toxin or toxin analogue per unit dose of the vaccine will differ according to the age of the animals to be immunized (for instance according to whether sows or piglets are to be immunized against P. multocida) , the route and form of administration, and the immunogenicity of the particular toxin present in the vaccine, a suitable amount of toxin or toxin analogue is contemplated in the range of 0.1-500 μg per dosage of the vaccine. The vaccine may further comprise an adjuvant in order to increase the immunogenicity of the vaccine preparation. The adjuvant may be se¬ lected from Freund's complete or incomplete adjuvant, aluminium hydroxide, Bordetella pertussis, a saponin, a muramyl dipeptide, an iscom (immune stimulating complex; cf. for instance EP 109 942) and an oil, such as a vegetable oil, e.g. peanut oil, or a mineral oil, e.g. silicone oil. In some cases it may be advantageous to couple the toxin or toxin analogue to a carrier, in particular a macromolecular carrier. The carrier is usually a polymer to which the toxin is bound by hydropho¬ bic non-covalent interaction, such as a plastic, e.g. polystyrene, or a polymer to which the toxin is covalently bound, such as a polysac- charide, or a polypeptide, e.g. bovine serum albumin, ovalbumin or keyhole limpet hemocyanin. The carrier should preferably be non-toxic and non-allergenic. The toxin or toxin analogue may be multivalently coupled to the macromolecular carrier as this provides an increased immunogenicity of the vaccine preparation. It is also contemplated that the toxin or toxin analogue may be presented in multivalent form by polymerizing the toxin or toxin analogue with itself. In a particular embodiment of the vaccine of the present invention, the toxin or toxin analogue as defined above is fused to another polypeptide. Techniques for preparing fused polypeptides are known from, e.g. Casadaban and Cohen, 1983, (ref. 11). Alternatively, the fusion may be provided by fusing the nucleotide sequence encoding the toxin to a nucleotide sequence encoding another polypeptide so that the fused nucleotide sequence, when inserted in an appropriate vec¬ tor, is expressed as a fusion polypeptide on transformation of the vector to a. suitable microorganism and growth of the microorganism under conditions favorable to the expression of the fused sequence. The polypeptide to which the toxin is fused may, for instance, be a carrier polypeptide as suggested above, lysozyme or another immunoge¬ nic peptide such as a Ty protein from Saccharomγces cerevisiae , protein A from Staphylococcus aureus , Hepatitis B core antigen, etc. It is also contemplated that the vaccine may be in the form of tab¬ let, granule or capsule intended for oral administration since there is: some evidence that immunogens may be absorbed through the intes¬ tinal wall and stimulate B-lymphocytes which then migrate to local epithelial regions where they transform into immunoglobulin-secreting plasma cells. An oral vaccine should be provided with an enteric coating in order to protect the toxin or toxin analogue from substan¬ ces present in gastric juice which might be deleterious to the toxin or toxin analogue, such as pepsin. The enteric coating may be selec¬ ted from shellac, cellulose acetate esters such as cellulose acetate phthalate, hydroxypropylmethyl cellulose esters such as hydroxypro¬ pylmethyl cellulose phthalate, polyvinyl acetate esters such as polyvinyl acetate phthalate, and polymers of methacrylic acid and (meth) crylic acid esters. Newly developed methods of encapsulations, based on microspheres with a diameter of about 5-15 μm axe of special interest since such particles containing an immunogenic substance after administration will be selectively delivered to Peyers's pat¬ ches thereby providing immunity on mucosal surfaces. Stimulation of the immune response on respiratory mucosal surfaces may also be obtained through intranasal immunizations. (Mestecky, 1987, (ref. 12) . The DNA fragment of the invention comprising the nucleotide sequence encoding the toxin or toxin analogue may be derived from complemen¬ tary cDNA obtained by preparing a cDNA library on the basis of mRNA from a toxin-producing P. multocida strain by standard methods. Alternatively and preferably, the nucleotide sequence may be derived from a P. multocida genome, by screening for genomic sequences hybri- dizing to a DNA probe prepared on the basis of the full or partial amino acid sequence of the toxin in accordance with established procedures or by establishing a toxin gene library and screening for toxin-producing clones by means of a toxin-specific antibody (for a more detailed description of this procedure, see Example 4). In the case of PMT, it is not possible to prepare a DNA probe on the basis of its N-terminal amino acid sequence since PMT is blocked in the N-terminal and therefore is not degraded by procedures for the sequ¬ encing of amino acids. Another routine screening method which has proven to be difficult in the case of PMT is screening for toxin-producing clones by means of an anti-PMT serum. When using serum from a rabbit repeatedly immuni¬ zed with PMT, the present inventors found 5 E . coli clones by the Colony blot method in the gene library described in Example 5. Fur- ther studies of the above 5 clones, however, showed that none of them were producing PMT. These results indicate the importance of performing the screening with anti-PMT monoclonal antibodies as described in Example 5. The nucleotide sequence may also be derived from a bacteriophage in- fectious for P. multocida , i.e. one which has been transferred from one bacterial strain which originally carried the sequence to another strain which did not originally carry the sequence by bacteriophage transfection. Similarly, the nucleotide sequence may be derived from a plasmid or other genetic element transferred from one strain to another by conjugation, transformation or the like. Furthermore, the nucleotide sequence coding for the toxin may be a synthetic sequence, that is, one prepared according to standard pro¬ cedures, e.g. as described in Matthes et al., 1984, (ref. 13). Final¬ ly, the nucleotide sequence may be a mixed genomic and synthetic or mixed cDNA and synthetic sequence prepared by ligating DNA fragments of genomic, cDNA or synthetic origin (as appropriate) which DNA fragments each contain part of the nucleotide sequence- encoding the toxin, in accordance with established methods. In accordance with the explanation given above, the DNA fragment may be one which has been modified by substitution, addition, insertion or deletion of one or more nucleotides in the sequence with the pur¬ pose- of establishing a sequence which, when expressed, results in the production of a detoxified toxin or toxin analogue. In particular, the invention relates to a DNA fragment which compri¬ ses a nucleotide sequence substantially as shown in Fig. 10 (a)-(j) or a modification thereof as indicated above. The sequence coding for the full-length toxin starts at position 219 (or 213) of the sequence shown in the figure, while the end of the sequence is at position 4073. The DNA sequence shown in Fig. 10 (a)-(j) has been established by well-known methods as described in Example 7 below-. The DNA fragment of the invention may further comprise a nucleotide sequence encoding another polypeptide fused to the nucleotide sequen- ce encoding the toxin or toxin analogue with the purpose of producing a fused polypeptide, as explained above. A further purpose of pre¬ paring a fused polypeptide may be to facilitate purification of the toxin. In this case, the fused sequence may be inserted into an ap¬ propriate vector which is transformed to a suitable host microorga- nis which is grown under conditions ensuring expression of the fused sequence after which the fused polypeptide is recovered from the cul¬ ture by subjecting the fused polypeptide to affinity chromatography involving an antibody or any other ligand reacting with the second polypeptide. After purification, the second polypeptide may then be removed, for instance by suitable proteolytic cleavage followed by separation of the two polypeptides. In a further aspect, the invention relates to an expression vector which is capable of replicating in a host microorganism and which carries a DNA fragment as described above. The vector may either be one which is capable of autonomous replication, such as a plasmid, or one which is replicated with the host chromosome, such as a bacterio¬ phage. Specific examples of expression vectors of the invention are the plas ids pSPE A-R described in Example 9 below and shown in the appended Fig. 13. In a still further aspect, the invention relates to a microorganism which is capable of expressing a DNA fragment as defined above and which carries a vector as described above. The microorganism is preferably a bacterium, especially a gramnegative bacterium such as E. coll . The invention also relates to a method of producing an immunogenic detoxified P. multocida toxin or toxin analogue, the method compri¬ sing a) isolating a nucleotide sequence coding for the P. multocida toxin or toxin analogue, b) inserting said sequence, optionally in suitably modified form resulting in the expression of the detoxified toxin or toxin analogue or a subsequence coding for an immunogenic subsequence of the toxin ot toxin analogue, in an expression vector, c) transforming a suitable host microorganism with the vector pro¬ duced in step b) , d) cultivating the microorganism produced in step c) under suitable conditions for expressing the toxin or toxin analogue, e) harvesting the toxin or toxin analogue from the culture, and f) optionally subjecting the toxin to posttranslational modifications to produce the detoxified toxin or toxin analogue. In step a) of the method, the nucleotide sequence may for instance be isolated by establishing a P. multocida gene library and screening for toxin-positive clones in accordance with established methods as indicated above as well as described in detail in Example 4 below. In step b) of the method, the modification of the sequence optionally carried out may be performed before or after the sequence has been inserted in the vector. The modification may comprise substitution, addition, insertion or deletion of one or more nucleotides in the sequence or a combination thereof, as explained above. The transformation in step c) of the method may be carried out by standard procedures, such as disclosed in Maniatis et al. (ref. 14). The cultivation of the host microorganism in step d) of the method may be carried out in a culture medium conventionally used for fer¬ mentation purposes, e.g. Luria Broth medium, and under conditions with respect to pH, temperature, aeration, etc. suited to the type of microorganism in question, e.g. as disclosed in Maniatis et al. (ref. 14) . In step e) of the method, the harvesting of the toxin or toxin analo¬ gue may proceed by well-known methods such as by precipitation, gel filtration, ion exchange or HPLC reverse phase chromatography or immunoaffinity chromatography. If the nucleotide sequence coding for the toxin or toxin analogue has not been modified in step b) of the method to result in expression of the detoxified toxin or toxin analogue, the toxin or toxin analogue should be subjected to posttranslational modifications in step f) of the method, for instance thermal treatment, treatment with a chemical such as formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde or a suitable proteolytic en¬ zyme, e.g. trypsin, or substitution, addition, insertion or deletion of one or more amino acids in the toxin or toxin analogue. In a still further aspect, the invention concerns a method of produc¬ ing a vaccine for immunizing an animal, including a human being, against diseases caused by microorganisms producing an osteolytic toxin, the method comprising formulating the toxin or toxin analogue produced by recombinant DNA techniques or by peptide synthesis as described above with an immunologically acceptable carrier or ve¬ hicle, such as those indicated above. In a further, interesting aspect, the present invention relates to a no -pathogenic microorganism which carries and is capable of express¬ ing an inserted nucleotide sequence coding for an immunogenic de- toxified P. multocida toxin or toxin analogue for use as a live vaccine for the immunization of an animal against diseases caused by microorganisms producing an osteolytic toxin. The use of a live vaccine might be advantageous since there is some indication that vaccines based on living organisms show an excellent immunogenicity, often conferring a lifelong immunity against the disease in question. Live vaccines also tend to be less expensive to produce than those based on a purified protein, no purification step being required. In order to provide expression of the toxin or toxin analogue in detoxified form, the nucleotide sequence coding for the toxin or toxin analogue may be suitably modified, either before or after introduction into the host microorganism, by substitution, addition. insertion or deletion of one or more nucleotides in the sequence or a combination of these measures, as explained above. In a particularly advantageous embodiment of the live vaccine of the invention, the nucleotide sequence coding for the toxin or toxin ana¬ logue is expressed on the outer surface of the host cell. This pro¬ vides a favorable presentation of the toxin epitope(s) which will be recognized by the immune defense mechanisms of the animal to which the live vaccine is administered, thus provoking an appropriate immune response. One way of providing the expression of the toxin or toxin analogue on the cell surface is to fuse the nucleotide sequence encoding the toxin or toxin analogue to another nucleotide sequence encoding a surface protein or a subsequence thereof (e.g. a signal peptide) which cause the toxin or toxin analogue to be expressed on the outer surface of the host cell, optionally as a fused polypepti¬ de. Examples of useful surface proteins are adhesins, fimbrial pro¬ teins, e.g. the E. coli K88 or Type 1 fimbrial protein, or the LamB protein of E. coli . The invention also relates to the use of a recombinant, detoxified immunogenic P. multocida toxin or toxin analogue for preparing a vaccine for the immunization of an animal, including a human being, against diseases caused by microorganisms producing an osteolytic toxin. The toxin or toxin analogue used for immunization may be one encoded by the DNA sequence shown in Fig. 10 (a)-(j) or a modifica¬ tion thereof as explained above. Similarly, the present invention relates to a method of immunizing an animal, including a human being, against diseases caused by micro- organisms producing an osteolytic toxin, the method comprising ad¬ ministering to the animal an immunogenically effective amount of a recombinant detoxified immunogenic P. multocida toxin or toxin analo¬ gue, such as the one encoded by the DNA sequence shown in Fig. 10 (a)-(j) or a modification thereof. The toxin or toxin analogue may be administered intravenously, intramuscularly, subcutaneously, intraperitoneally, orally or intranasally. It is contemplated that a suitable dosage range will be 0.1-500 μg, dependent on the age and condition of the animal in question, the route and form of admini¬ stration and the immunogenicity of the toxin or toxin analogue. In a preferred embodiment, the monoclonal antibody of the present invention is one raised against the P. multocida toxin produced by P. multocida ssp. multocida 45/78, which is publicly available from the National Collection of Type Cultures (NCTC) , Central Public Health Laboratory, London, England, with the accession number NCTC 12178. In connection with the research leading to the present invention, several different monoclonal antibodies to the toxin produced by this Pasteurella strain have been prepared (vide Example 1 below) , repre¬ sentative examples of which are the ones produced by the hybridoma cell lines P3F37 and P3F51. Samples of these cell lines were deposi- ted in accordance with the provisions of the Budapest Treaty on the International Recognition of the Deposit of Microorganisms for the Purpose of Patent Procedure, on 3 December, 1987, in the European Collection of Animal Cell Cultures (ECACC) , Centre for Applied Micro¬ biology and Research, Porton Down, Salisbury, Wiltshire, Great Bri- tain, with the accession numbers ECACC 87120301 and ECACC 87120302, respectivel . The monoclonal antibody of the invention may be prepared by a method comprising: a) Immunizing a suitable animal or animal cell with an immunogenic P. mul tocida toxin or toxin analogue to obtain cells producing an anti¬ body to said toxin or toxin analogue, b) fusing cells producing the antibody with cells of a suitable myeloma cell line,and selecting and cloning the resulting hybridoma cells producing said antibody, or c) immortalizing an unfused cell line producing said antibody, e.g. by viral transformation, followed by d) growing the cells of step b) or c) in a suitable medium to produce said antibody and harvesting the antibody from the growth medium. The initial immunization of the animals in step a) of the method re¬ quires a modification of the conventional method of producing mono¬ clonal antibodies disclosed by Kόhler and Milstein, Nature 256 , 1975, p. 495, since, PMT, even when it is administered to mice in sublethal doses, will cause an atrophy of the spleen which seriously complica¬ tes the hybridoma technique. The animals must therefore initially be immunized with a detoxified toxin preparation as it has been found that any subsequent booster immunizations may be carried out with the native toxin which need not be detoxified before use. The immuniza- tion may otherwise be carried out according to conventional proce¬ dures, e.g. by administering a solution or suspension of the (detoxi¬ fied) toxin or toxin analogue in a suitable solvent such as isotonic saline or phosphate buffered saline optionally containing an adjuvant such as one of those indicated above. Animals suited for immunization purposes are, for instance, mice, rabbits, goats, sheep, guinea pigs, etc. The bleeding of the animals and recovery of the polyclonal an¬ tibodies may be performed by conventional procedures. The antibod -producing cells used for fusion to the myeloma cells are preferably spleen or lymph cells (e.g. lymphoblasts, B-lymphocytes, plasma cells or related cells isolated from spleen, lymph nodes or functionally related tissues) . The fusion of antibody-producing cells and myeloma cells may be performed substantially as described by Kόhler and Milstein, supra, that is, preferably in the presence of a fusion promoter such as polyethylene glycol. A ratio of about 3 anti¬ body-producing cells per myeloma cell is preferred. The myeloma cell line employed is preferably of a type unable to survive in selective medium and unable to produce immunoglobulins by itself; one type of cell line frequently used for cell fusions is one which lacks the enzyme hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase and which is consequently unable to grow in a medium containing hypoxanthine, a inopterin and thymidine (HAT medium) . The selection of hybridoma cells which produce an antitoxin-antibody may then be carried out by culturing unfused antibody-producing cells, unfused myeloma cells and supposedly fused cells in a selec¬ tive medium (such as HAT) in which the unfused myeloma cells cannot grow and eventually die out. The unfused antibody-producing cells can only survive for a limited period of time after which they also die out. On the other hand, successfully fused cells continue to grow as they have inherited permanent growth properties from the parent myeloma cells and the ability to survive in the selective medium from the parent antibody-producing cells. Alternatively to the production of hybridomas, immortalized unfused antibody-producing cells may be produced either by transferring the genes responsible for production of immunoglobulin from the hybridoma to another (more viable) cell line or by viral transformation as de¬ scribed by Klein et al. , (ref. 16). The resulting antibody-producing cells (whether hybridomas or unfused cells) may be grown in vitro after cloning, e.g. as described in Example 1 below, in a suitable medium, such as RPMI 1640. This re¬ sults in the production of monoclonal antibodies of a very high purity as these are secreted into the culture supernatant by the cells. The antibodies may then be isolated by conventional methods such as centrifugation, filtration, precipitation, chromatography, or a combination thereof. In an alternative method, the monoclonal antibodies may also be pro¬ duced in the body cavity of an animal such as a mouse. In this embo¬ diment, the antibody-producing cell is injected into an animal such as a mouse resulting in the formation of an ascites tumour which re¬ leases high concentrations of the antibody in the ascites of the animal. Although the animals will also produce normal antibodies, these will only amount to a minor percentage of the monoclonal anti- bodies which may be purified from ascites by standard purification procedures such as centrifugation, filtration, precipitation, chroma¬ tography or a combination thereof. In a further aspect, the invention relates to a diagnostic agent which comprises a monoclonal antibody as defined above. Although in some cases such as when the diagnostic agent is to be em¬ ployed in an agglutination assay in which solid particles to which the antibody is coupled agglutinate in the presence of a P. multocida toxin in the sample subjected to testing, no labelling of the mo¬ noclonal antibody is necessary, it is preferred for most purposes to provide the antibody with a label in order to detect bound antibody. In a double antibody ("sandwich") assay, at least one of the anti¬ bodies may be provided with a label. Substances useful as labels in the present context may be selected from enzymes, fluorescers, ra¬ dioactive isotopes and complexing agents such as biotin. Examples of enzymes which may be used as label substances are peroxi- dases, e.g. horseradish peroxidase, or phosphatases. e.g. alkaline phosphatases. As enzymes are not directly detectable, they must be combined with a substrate to form a detectable reaction product which may, for instance, be fluorescent or coloured. Examples of useful substrates are H2θ2/o-phenylene diamine, H2θ2/azinodiethylbenzthiazo- line sulphonic acid and p-nitrophenylphosphate. Examples of fluorescers useful as label substances are H2θ2/p-hy- 1-125,' S-35 and P-32. The radioactivity emitted by these isotopes may be measured in a gamma-counter or a scintillation counter in a manner known per se. In a favoured embodiment, the diagnostic agent comprises at least one antibody covalently or non-covalently coupled to a solid support. This may be used in a double antibody assay in which case the anti¬ body coupled to the solid support is not labelled. The solid support may be composed of a polymer or may comprise a matrix on which the polymer is applied. The solid support may be selected from a plastic, e.g. latex, polystyrene, polyvinylchloride, nylon, polyvinylidene di- fluoride, cellulose, e.g. nitrocellulose and magnetic carrier par¬ ticles (e.g. iron particles coated with polystyrene). For use in a diagnostic assay, the solid support may have any conve¬ nient shape. Thus, it may be in the form of a plate, e.g. a thin layer or, preferably, microtiter plate, a strip, film, paper or solid particles such as latex beads or the like. Rather than being coupled directly to the solid support, the mono¬ clonal antibody may be coupled to a ligand immobilized on a solid support. Examples of ligands include Protein A, or an immuno lobulin- specific antibody. It should be noted that practically all methods or applications based on intact monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies could instead be per¬ formed using fragments of the monoclonal or polyclonal antibody, e.g. F(ab') 2 or Fab fragments (cf. Goding, 1978, (ref. 17). For use in a sandwich assay, the diagnostic agent may additionally comprise a polyclonal antibody. This antibody may be labelled and/or coupled to a solid support as described above in connection with the monoclonal antibody. The monoclonal antibody of the invention may be used in a method of determining the presence of a P. multocida toxin or toxin analogue in a sample, the method comprising incubating the sample with a monoclo¬ nal antibody as described above and detecting the presence of bound toxin or toxin analogue resulting from said incubation. The antibody 21 may be provided with a label as explained above and/or may be bound to a solid support as exemplified above. In a favoured embodiment of the method, the sample is incubated with a first monoclonal antibody coupled to a solid support and subse- quently with a second monoclonal or polyclonal antibody provided with a label. An example of this embodiment is the sandwich ELISA (enzyme linked immunosorbent assay) assay described in Example 2 below. In an alternative embodiment (a so-called competitive binding assay) , the sample may be incubated with a monoclonal antibody coupled to a solid support and simultaneously or subsequently with a labelled P. multocida toxin or toxin analogue the latter competing for binding sites on the antibody with any toxin or toxin analogue present in the sample. The sample subjected to the present method may be any sample suspect- ed of containing a P. multocida toxin or toxin analogue. Thus, the sample may be selected from bacterial suspensions, bacterial ex¬ tracts, culture supernatants, animal body fluids (e.g. serum, colo¬ strum or nasal mucous) and intermediate or final vaccine products. Apart from the diagnostic use of the monoclonal antibody of the in- vention, it is contemplated to utilize the well-known ability of cer¬ tain monoclonal antibodies to inhibit or block the activity of biolo¬ gically active antigens by incorporating the monoclonal antibody in a composition for the passive immunization of an animal, including a human being, against diseases caused by microorganisms producing an osteolytic toxin, which comprises a monoclonal antibody as described above and a suitable carrier or vehicle. The composition may be pre¬ pared by combining an effective immunizing amount of the antibody or fragment thereof with a suitable carrier or vehicle. Examples of suitable carriers and vehicles may be the ones discussed above in connection with the vaccine of the invention. The composition may further comprise an adjuvant such as one of those indicated above. Based on experiments with mice (cf. Example 11 below) where the mono¬ clonal antibody induced passive immunity against PMT, it is contem- 22 plated that a PMT-specific antibody may be used for prophylactic or therapeutic treatment of atrophic rhinitis in pigs. It may be admini¬ stered intravenously, subcutaneously or intramuscularly as well as orally in suitably protected form or by means of an intranasal aero- sol. A further use of the monoclonal antibody of the invention is in a method of isolating a P. multocida toxin or toxin analogue, the method comprising adsorbing a biological material containing said toxin or toxin analogue to a matrix comprising an immobilized mono- clonal antibody as described above, eluting said toxin or toxin analogue from said matrix and recovering said toxin or toxin analogue from the. eluate. The matrix may be composed of any suitable material usually employed for affinity chromatographic purposes such as agarose, dextran, con- trolled pore glass, DEAE cellulose, optionally activated by means of CNBr, divinylsulphone, etc. in a manner known per se . The present invention further relates to a diagnostic agent for the detection of PMT-producing microorganisms, which comprises a labelled DNA sequence homologous with a DNA sequence coding for a Paεterurella multocida toxin or toxin analogue. In this context, the term "homolo¬ gous with" is intended to indicate that the DNA sequence comprises at least one stretch of deoxyribonucleotides of at least 15 bases with 80% homology to a part of the shown sequence or to a part of the sequence encoding a toxin analogue. In a method employing the diagnostic agent, probe DNA is labelled, and the DNA is denatured to separate the strands in both probe and sample DNA; the DNAs are mixed and the strands are left to reform the double helical structure, but in case of homology, some of the probe DNA will have combined with the sample DNA. This is known as hybridi- zation and is described by for instance Southern, 1980, (ref. 18). The DNA used as the probe should have a unique nucleotide sequence of a certain length in order to be sufficiently specific as a diagnostic agent. The probe DNA may advantageously be labelled with a radioac¬ tive isotope such as H-3, 1-125, S-35 or P-32 as described e.g. by Rigby et al., 1977, (ref. 19); a complexing agent such as biotin (Gebeyechu et al., 1987, (ref. 20); or with digoxygenin-dUTP accor¬ ding to the method described by the manufacturer of the reagent, Boehringer, Mannheim. In a particular embodiment of the invention, detection of the presen¬ ce of Pasteurella multocida toxin producing microorganisms in a sample is performed by use of a DNA probe in the polymerase chain reaction procedure described by Saiki et al., 1985, (ref. 21). The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a procedure used for the amplific- ation of DNA present in a sample. The procedure involves the use of two oligonucleotide primers which flank the DNA segment to be ampli¬ fied. The oligonucleotide primers may e.g. comprise the regions of the gene coding for Pasteurella multocida toxin or toxin analogue and may thus be used to amplify the said gene or part of it present in a sample. The oligonucleotide primers hybridize to opposite strands of the DNA sequence to be amplified, and the primers are extended by using DNA polymerase, e.g. the Klenow fragment of E. coli DNA polymerase I or another useful DNA polymerase such as the Taq DNA polymerase, so as to synthesize a DNA sequence which is complementary to the DNA sequence to which the primers are annealed. Subsequent to the synthesis of these complementary sequences, the DNA synthesized is denatured, e.g. by heating, from the "parent DNA strings", and the parent strings as well as the newly synthesized DNA strings are subjected to a new PCR amplification cycle. In this manner, it is possible to obtain a substantial amplification of specific DNA sequ¬ ences which are present in a sample. By use of the PCR amplification method, it may be possible to amplify and then detect originally very small and undetectable amounts of DNA sequences present in a sample. In a still further aspect, the present invention relates to a method of determining the presence of antibodies against a P. multocida toxin or toxin analogue in a sample, the method comprising incubating the sample with a P. multocida toxin or toxin analogue .and detecting the presence of bound antibody resulting from said incubation. A diagnostic agent comprising the toxin or toxin analogue used in this method may otherwise exhibit any of the features described above for diagnostic agents comprising the monoclonal antibody and be used in similar detection methods although these will detect bound anti- body rather than bound toxin as such. The diagnostic agent may be useful, for instance as a reference standard or to detect anti-toxin antibodies in body fluids, e.g. serum, colostrum or nasal mucous, from animals exposed to the toxin or toxin analogue. A still further use of a P .multocida toxin or toxin analogue is for the preparation of a toxin reference standard which may be useful as a standard of comparison in qualitative or quantitative analytical procedures. In a qualitative procedure, the standard toxin in a known concentration may be reacted with a monoclonal or a polyclonal anti¬ body raised against the toxin or toxin analogue, a positive reaction indicating the specificity of the antibodies. In another aspect, the reference standard preparation is applied in a quantitative analyti¬ cal procedure by which different concentrations of the preparation is reacted with a monoclonal or a polyclonal antibody in order to pro¬ vide a calibration curve which may allow the precise amount of toxin or toxin analogue in a sample to be estimated. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention is further disclosed in the following with reference to the drawings in which Fig. 1 is a graph showing the titration of PMT in a quantitative sandwich ELISA. The absorbance at 492 nm obtained in the ELISA is plotted against the PMT concentration. The minimum detectable con¬ centration of PMT is about 1 ng/ml corresponding to about 50 pg or 0.35 f ol. Fig. 2.shows an SDS-PAGE of fractions from the affinity chromatogra- phy described in Example 3. Lane A: the culture supernatant applied on the column, lane 0: the effluent from the column, lane E: the eluted purified PMT, and lane M: molecular weight marker proteins, Fig. 3 is a Western blot showing PMT production by the 5 positive recombinant E. coli clones detected in the screening procedure. Lane 1: SPE 301; lanes 2 and 3: SPE 308; lane 4: SPE 315; lanes 5 and 6: SPE 312; lane 7: SPE 311; lane 8: purified PMT. Fig. 4 is a restriction enzyme cleavage map of the plasmid pSPE 308 with a length of 21.5 kb (kilobase pairs). The hatched area denotes P. multocida DNA, the shaded area denotes the pmt gene and the verti¬ cally hatched area denotes plasmid pUN121 DNA. Fig. 5 is a restriction enzyme cleavage map of the plasmid pSPE 312 with a length of 13.8 kb. The hatched area denotes P. multocida DNA, the shaded area denotes the pmt gene and the vertically hatched area denotes plasmid pUN121 DNA. Fig. 6 is a restriction enzyme cleavage map of plasmids constructed by enzymatic cleavage of the plasmid pSPE 308. The hatched area deno- tes P. mul tocida DNA, the shaded area denotes the pmt gene, and the vertically hatched area denotes pUN121 DNA. Fig. 7 is a restriction enzyme cleavage map of plasmids constructed by enzymatic cleavage of pSPE 312. The hatched area denotes P. mul to¬ cida DNA, the vertically hatched area denotes pUN121 DNA, and the shaded area denotes the pmt gene. Fig. 8 is a Western blot showing PMT production by derivatives of plasmids pSPE 308 and pSPE 312. Lane 1: purified PMT; lane 2: pSPE 350; lane 3: pSPE 349; lane 4: pSPE 341; lane 5: pSPE 345; lane 6: pSPE 312; lanes 7 and 8: purified PMT. Plasmid pSPE 349 is identical to plasmid pSPE 347 shown in Fig. 7. Fig. 9 is a restriction enzyme cleavage map of the pmt gene. The shaded area denotes the pmt gene, the vertically hatched area denotes a probable promoter, and the hatched area denotes a probable termina¬ tor. Fig. 10 (a)-(j) shows the DNA sequence of the pmt gene region and the amino acid sequence deduced on the basis of the DNA sequence. The amino acids are identified with single-letter codes according to con¬ ventional usage. The amino acid sequence has been shown to start at position 213 or 219. Fig. 11 is a restriction enzyme cleavage map of the plasmid pSPE 525 with a length of 7.7 kb. The hatched area denotes P. multocida DNA, the shaded area denotes the pmt gene, and the vertically hatched area denotes pUN121 DNA. Fig. 12 is a restriction enzyme cleavage map of the expression vector pSPE 481 with a length of 8.25 kb. The hatched (towards the right) area denotes P. multocida DNA, the shaded area denotes the pmt gene, the hatched (towards the left) area denotes AP^ DNA, the cross-hatch¬ ed area denotes the amp gene, and the vertically hatched area denotes the origin of replication. Fig. 13 is a restriction enzyme cleavage map of the toxA coding region. Extension of coding region present on each derivative plasmid (pSPE A-R) is indicated (A-R) by bars. Hatched bars: Coding region in correct reading frame; open bars: Coding region not in frame with the 5 r part of the coding region. Fig. 14 is a Western blot showing the recognition by a mouse anti-PMT antiserum of PMT derivatives produced by the plasmids pSPE A-L. Lanes 7, 13, 14 and 15: different strains harbouring the entire pmt gene; lane 1: derivative A; lane 2: derivative I; lane 3: derivative B; lane 4: derivative J; lane 5: derivative L; lanes 6 and 9: derivative E; lane 8: derivative C; lane 10: derivative G; lane 11: derivative H; lane 12: derivative D. Approximate sizes (in kilodalton) of pro¬ minent full-length derivatives and degradation products are indica¬ ted. Fig. 15 is a graph showing the distribution of relative absorbances (A/A Q ) by PMT-ELISA of extracts of non-cytopathic (hatched bars) and cytopathic (black bars) field isolates of P. multocida -diluted 1:1 in PBS-T-BSA. Fig. 16 is a graph showing the mean ±SD of relative absorbances (A/A 0 ) of dilutions of extracts of cytopathic (black squares) and non-cytopathic (open squares) field isolates of P . multocida . Fig. 17 is a graph showing the presence of anti-PMT-antibodies in serum samples from anti-PMT-antibody-negative, infected and vaccina¬ ted pigs detected by competive ELISA. The graph shows the 50% block¬ ing titers at an absorbance of 492 nm. .... negative infected vaccinated Fig. 18 shows the colony hybridization of P. multocida isolates, testing 17 toxin-positive and 18-toxin-negative strains as determined by the ELISA and EBL cell tests for the presence of the pmt gene. Fig. 19 shows the determination of toxic activities of cell-free sonicates of recombinant E. coli clones. E. coli strain MT102 with PUN121 had no cytopathic effect on EBL-cells when diluted 1/25 in PBS (a). Sonicates of E. coli SPE312 (b) and toxigenic P .mul tocida (NCTC 12178) (c) diluted 1/3125 showed significant and identical effects (80 X magnification) . Fig. 20 shows the P .multocida DNA flanking the pmt-gene (black area). The extension of the inserts of the plasmids pSPE308, pSPE312, pSPE344, pLOA03 and pLOB03 are indicated. The DNA contained in the probes used for the blotting (slant hatched area) , and the fragments which contain the two homologous sequences (vertically hatched area) are shown. Fig. 21 shows a Southern blot of restriction enzyme digested P . mul to¬ cida DNA. Probe: 2,4 kb Bglll-EcoRI fragment of pLOB03. Lanes 10*-14* is a short time exposure of lanes 10-14. Lanes 1-4: Toxigenic P .multocida 45/78. Lanes 5-9: Nontoxigenic P . multocida MH81P8. Lane 10: pSPE308. Lane 11: pLOA03. Lane 12: pLOA02. Lane 13: pSPE312. Lane 14: pLOB03. Restriction enzymes used: Hindlll : Lanes 1, 5, 10, 11, 12 and 13. EcoRl : Lanes 2, 6 and 1 . Bglll : Lanes 3 and 7. PvuII: Lanes 4 and 8. PstI: Lane 9. Fig. 22 shows a dot blot of 24 different P.multocida bacteriophage genomes. Probe: pLOA03. The probe does not hybridize to B2 and C5. A7: pSPE308; B7: pSPE312, C7: pLOA03 and D7: pLOB03 are positive controls. EXAMPLE 1 Preparation of monoclonal antibodies against P. multocida toxin Immunization P. multocida toxin (PMT) was purified as described by Foged et al. (ref. 6), i.e., by 50% (NH^^SO^precipitation of a cell-free extract of the toxigenic type D strain of P. multocida ssp . multocida 45/78 (refs. 3, 22) followed by DEAE-Sephacel® chromatography and prepara¬ tive polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) in a manner known per se . A suspension of the (NH^^SO^-precipitate prepared as described above and containing approx. 25 μg/ l of PMT was detoxified by incubation with 0.37% formaldehyde at 37°C for 1 h. Female BALB/c mice (8-12 weeks old) were immunized subcutaneously on day 0 and 14 with 300 μl of a 1:1 dilution of the crude preparation of detoxified P. multocida toxin and Freund's incomplete adjuvant (day 0) or PBS (day 14). On day 30 and 45 1 μg of native PMT in 200 μl PBS was injected subcuta¬ neously and on day 60 the mice were boosted intravenously with 0.5 μ of PMT in 100 μl PBS. Three days after the booster injection the mice were sacrified and their spleens removed for fusion. Production of hybridoma cell lines and monoclonal antibodies According to procedures described by Fazetas et al. (ref. 23) and Gebeychu et al. (ref. 20), the spleen cells and P3-X63-Ag8.653 myelo¬ ma cells were fused using 50% PEG 4000 GK (Merck) and the resulting hybridoma cells were grown selectively in hypoxanthine/aminopterin/- thymine (HAT) -supplemented RPMI 1640 medium containing 15% fetal calf serum (FCS) and 4% human endothelial cell supernatant (Costar, The Netherlands) . Hybridoma cell lines were selected by analyzing their respective monoclonal antibodies by ELISA and immunoblotting. 30 ELISA for detection and titration of monoclonal antibodies Microtitre plates (96-well Immuno Plate II, Nunc, Denmark) were coat¬ ed with 50 μl/well of a 0.75 μg/ml solution of purified PMT in PBS at 4°C for 16 h. and at 20°C for 1 h. The wells were emptied and blocked with 200 μl PBS-T-BSA (PBS containing 0.05% (v/v) Tween®20 and 1% (w/v) bovine serum albumin) per well at 20°C for 1 h. , then washed 3 times with PBS-T. Fifty μl/well of hybridoma culture supernatant was applied at 20°C for 1 h. , and the plates were washed as described above. The anti-PMT antibody activity was measured colorimetrically after incubating at 20°C for 1 h. with 50 μl/well of sheep anti-mouse immunoglobulin conjugated with horseradish peroxidase (Amersham In¬ ternational, U ' .K.) diluted 1:1,500 in PBS-T-BSA and (after 3 further PBS-T washes as above) with 50 μl of an o-phenylene diamine (OPD)- H2O2 substrate solution. The reaction was stopped with 150 μl of 2 M H2SO after 5 min. and absorbance was determined in a Kontron SLT-210 photometer (SLT Lab-instr. , Zurich, Switzerland) at 492 nm (ref. 620 nm) . The mean absorbance at the saturation level of the titration curve (A sat ) and the mean concentration of the MAb that resulted in 50% of the sat 050%) was determined by ELISA as described above, except that serial dilutions of the protein- purified MAb in PBS-T-BSA was used. All results were based on at least duplicate determinations. Immunob lotting To determine the specificity of the monoclonal antibodies, the pro- teins contained in a crude cell-free extract of P. multocida 45/78, were separated by SDS-PAGE before transfer to a nitrocellulose mem¬ brane and immunological detection. Polyacrylamide gels (total acryl- amide: 10%, relative bis-aer lamide: 3%) and an electrophoresis buf¬ fer were prepared according to Laemmli (ref. 24) . Electripphoresis was performed vertically at 10°C at a constant voltage of 60| V for 16 h. or 250 V for 4 h. Protein-bands on gels were either visualized by silver staining with a detection limit of less than 1 ng- of protein per band (8) or transferred to a nitrocellulose membrane: (0.45 μm) using a semidry electroblotter (Ancos, ølstykke, Denmark; (9)) . The proteins on the nitrocellulose membrane were either detected by a colloidal gold silver enhancement staining method (detection limit: approx. 0.5 ng of protein per band) (ref. 25) or immunologically by a modification of the method previously described by Bjerrum et al. (ref. 26). A positive reaction in immunoblotting was recorded as + or (+) , when an intense (or weak) staining of the PMT-band but no other protein band was observed. Staining of other bands or no reaction was recorded as - . The molecular weight of PMT was estimated by comparison with known markers: ovalbumin (43.0 kd) , BSA (66.3 kd) , phosphorylase B (97.4 kd) , ^-galactosidase (116.2 kd) , RNA-polymerase β (150.6 kd) and '(155.2 kd) and myosin (approx. 200 kd) . ELISA for estimating epitope specificity Estimation of apparent epitope specificity of anti-PMT MAbs was done by a competitive ELISA similar to a method described by Anderson et al. (ref. 27). Microtitre plates were coated with PMT and blocked as described above. Fifty μl of the competing MAb diluted to 10 μg/ml in PBS-T-BSA was added and incubated for 1 h. at 20°C. Without aspira¬ tion of the wells 25 μl biotinylated monoclonal antibody was added and the mixture was incubated for 20 min. at 20°C. After washings 50 μl of a 1:2,500 dilution of horseradish peroxidase-conjugated avidin (Kem-En-Tec, Denmark) was added and the plates incubated for 45 min. at 20°C. The substrate, reaction time and determination of absorbance were as described above. The biotinylated MAb was used at a working dilution resulting in approx. 75% of the absorbance at the saturation level on the titra¬ tion curve. This curve was obtained by using a diluent instead of the competing MAb and serial dilutions of the biotinylated MAb. The extent of blocking by a competitive MAb was calculated according to the formula (1-A/A 0 ) x 100%, where A is the mean of the absorbance for three wells with the competing MAb and A 0 is the mean of the ab¬ sorbance of eight wells containing diluent instead of the competing MAb. The data of 10 representative monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) , all of the IgG j _ subclass, out of 92 ELISA-positive supematants are shown in Tables 1 and 2. TABLE 1 Characterization of 10 representative MAbs Hybridoma Represen- A sat c 50% Immunoblotting group No. tative MAb ng/ml 1 P3E51 1.2 110 +• 2 P3F64 0.4 250 + 3 P3F37 0.7 30 (+) 4 P4F58 0.7 110 + 5 P3F22 0.6 35 + 6 P4F46 1.3 55 + 7 P4F38 1.9 40 + 8 P4F55 1.3 33 + 9 P3F50 1.8 315 + 10 P3F53 0.9 300 (+) a) A sat is the mean absorbance at 492 nm at the saturation level in the ELISA titration. TABLE 2 Extent of blocking by 10 representative MAbs. in the competitive ELISA Competing Biotinylated detector MAb (% decrease in A 0 a ) MAb (hybri doma group No . 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 P3F51 (1) 92 b P3F64 (2) 95 44 P3F37 (3) 63 95 78 P4F58 (4) 91 96 73 P3F22 (5) 71 88 P4F46 C (6) 92 90 93 16 P4F38 C (7) 93 92 95 27 P4F55 C (8) 92 92 95 15 P3F50 (9) 16 24 13 84 91 P3F53 (10) 56 83 1.43 0. 19 0. 53 0. 80 0. 64 0. 64 0. 85 1 .01 0. 26 0 .52 a) A 0 is the mean absorbance with diluent instead of competing MAb b) No blocking (between 12% increase and 9% decrease in A Q ) c) The closely related hybridoma groups 6, 7 and 8 were differen¬ tiated by a two-site competitive ELISA using a catching MAb (method not described) . Results indicated that group 6 was related to groups 3 and 4, group 7 to no other groups and group 8 to group 1. The selected hybridoma cell lines were then cloned until they were stable. The resulting clones were then grown in "cell factories" (Nunc, Denmark) at 37°C in RPMI 1640 medium supplemented with 10% FCS as well as injected about 5x10° cells/mouse into Balb/c mice which after a certain incubation time leads to the formation of a tumour in ™ _ "• - - . 34 the peritoneum of the mouse releasing high quantities of antibody in its ascites (about 5-10 ml containing 5-25 mg/ml). The hybridoma cell culture supematants were passed through a protein A agarose column (Kem-En-Tec, Denmark) . Bound antibodies were eluted with 0.05M acetic acid, pH 4.0, or 0.03M citric acid, pH 3.0, and immediately neutralized with an appropriate buffer. Purified anti¬ bodies were biotinylated as described by Guesdon et al., 1979, (ref. 28). Two hybridoma cell lines, P3F37 and P3F51 shown in Table 1 to produce MAb, were deposited on 3 December, 1987 in the European Collection of Animal Cell Cultures, Centre for Applied Microbiology and Research, Porton Down, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP4 OJG, U.K. , with the Accession numbers ECACC 87120301 and ECACC 87120302, respectively. EXAMPLE 2 Quantification of PMT Quantification of PMT was carried out by a sandwich ELISA procedure. The sandwich ELISA was initiated by coating each well of a microtitre plate (96 wells Immuno Plate II, Nunc, Denmark) with 50 μl of 2 μg/ml of the anti-PMT MAb, P3F51 (produced in Example 1) in 0.05 M carbon- ate buffer, pH 9.6 for 16 hours at 4°C and 1 hour at 20°C. Each well was incubated for 1 hour with 200 μl of phosphate-buffered saline containing 0.05% Tween 20 and 1% bovine serum albumine (PBS-T-BSA). The plates could be stored for at least 6 months by applying 20 μl/well of PBS-sorbitol and sealing with adhesive tape. The analysis was initiated by two PBS-T washings followed by incubation of 50 μl/well of solutions expected to contain PMT. The solutions were appropriately diluted in PBS-T-BSA and incubated for 1 hour at 20°C. After 3 PBS-T washings each well was incubated with 50 μl of 0.5 μg/ml of the biotin conjugated MAb, P3F37, for 1 hour at 20°C folio- wed by another 3 PBS-T washings and incubation with 50.μl/well of a 1:2,500 dilution of horseradish-peroxidase conjugated avidin (Kem-En- Tec, Denmark) for 45 min. at 20°C. Finally, 50 μl/well of an o-pheny¬ lene diami e/H2θ2 solution was added. The reaction was stopped with 2M H2SO4 after 5 min. and absorbance was determined in an Kontron SLT-210 photometer (SLT Labinstr. , Zurich, Switzerland) at 492 nm (ref. 620 nm) . Calibration was performed with a PMT-preparation quantified by amino acid analysis (ref. 6) and all quantitative data were means of at least dual determinations. Using a sandwich ELISA, with the MAb P3F51 as catching antibody and biotinylated MAb P3F37 as detecting antibody, it was possible to de¬ tect less than 50 pg of PMT in a 50 μl sample. PMT at a concentration of 1 ng/ml resulted in an A492 of approx. 0.1 corresponding to more than 8 times the background absorbance (cf. Fig. 1). EXAMPLE 3 Affinity purification of PMT About 100 mg of the protein-A purified MAb P3F51 prepared as descri- bed in Example 1 was coupled to 40 ml divinyl sulphone agarose (Mini-Leak, Kem-En-Tec, Denmark) as described by the manufacturer and loaded on a column (2.5x10 cm). The supernatant obtained by cultiva¬ tion of the toxigenic type D strain P. multocida 45/78 was centri- fuged (12,000 x g for 30 min. at 4°C) , filtered (Gelman, 0.45 μm) , mixed with 1/10 vol. of 1 M Tris-HCl, pH 7.7 and NaCl was added to 0.5 M before application to the affinity column. Repeated washings before elution of the column were carried out with an 0.1 M Tris-HCl buffer containing first 1% Triton® X-100, then 1.5 M NaCl and finally 0.1 M NaCl. All washing buffers contained 0.1% sodium azide and had a pH of 7.8. The PMT was eluted by 0.1 M glycine-HCl, pH 2.8 and im¬ mediately neutralized with 1 M K2HPO4, pH 9.0. The presence of PMT in the culture supernatant applied to the affini¬ ty column was indicated by the approx. 143 kd protein band seen by SDS-PAGE (Fig. 2). The staining pattern of proteins in' the material passing through the column (i.e. the effluent) was identical to that seen with material before application, except for the 143 kd protein, which was retained on the column. Accordingly, the approx. 143 kd protein band is the only staining seen when the protein composition of the eluted material is visualized by SDS-PAGE (Fig. 2). Approx. 2.67 mg of the 3.41 mg of PMT applied to the column was eluted in a final volume of 8 ml resulting in a 78% yield by affinity chromatography (Table 3). Nearly all the remaining 22% of PMT applied was eluted in fractions with PMT-concentrations below 50 μg/ml. The specific purity (μg PMT/mg protein) was 284 times higher in the eluted material than in the culture supernatant (Table 3) . The average minimal dermonecrotic dose of affinity purified PMT in guinea pigs after intradermal injection and the average MCD of PMT for embryonic bovine lung (EBL) cells in the standardized EBL-cell test (ref. 29) was approx. 35 ng and 30 pg, respectively. The LD50 of PMT in BALB/c mice was 20 to 40 ng (corresponding to approx. 1.5 μg/kg) and in Wistar rats approx. 100 ng (corresponding to 0.5 μg/kg) when administered intraperitoneally in a single dose. TABLE 3 Purification of PMT by affinity chromatography Vol. Protein PMT Purifica- Recovery of (ml) (mg) (mg) factor PMT, % Applied culture supernatant from P. multocida 45/78 13,200 970 3.41 1 100 Effluent from affinity column 13,200 970 <0.01 N.D. a <0.35 Eluted material 8 N.D. 2.67 284 b 78 a) N.D. not determined b) Estimated on the assumption of purity of PMT in the eluted material. EXAMPLE 4 Establishment of a P . multocida gene library in Escherichia coli Donor strain P. mul tocida strain 45/78. The strain produces a dermonecrotic toxin as described by Foged et al. (ref. 6). Recipient strain i Esbheri ' chia coli K-12 strain MT102. Genotype: thi , araD139, (ara- i leu) A7697 , JacΔX74, galU , rpsL , hsdR. This strain was constructed (by Mogens Trier Hansen, Novo Industri A/S, Denmark) as follows: nsduction, donor: Selection for tetracycllne resistance; Screening for deo- M785 donor: Selection f Screening f sensitivity HT102 39 Escherichia coli strain list (all strains are K-12 strains) STRAIN GENOTYPE REFERENCE OR SOURCE MC1000 araD139, Δ(ara-Leu)7697, ΔlacX74, galU, a) galK, rpsL. Søl386 leu , A(deoO-deoC) , TnlO-6 (91% co-trans- b) ducible with deo MT85 araD139, Δ(ara-leu)7697, ΔlacX74, galU, c) galK, rpsL, Tnl0-6, Δ(deoO-deoC) ≠804 met, supF, r- , m+, Δ(gal-lac) d) b) from Bente Mygind, Laboratoriet for Biologisk Kemi B, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. c) constructed by Mogens Trier Hansen as shown above, a): Casadaban and Cohen, 1980, (ref. 30). d) Wood, 1966 (ref. 31). Media P . multocida was grown in Tryptic Soy Broth purchased from DIFCO. E. coli was grown in LB medium (ref. 27) . Restriction enzymes and T4 DNA ligase were obtained from New England Biolabs and used as recommended by the manufacturer. DNA extraction To isolate chromosomal DNA from P. multocida strain 45/78, cells from a 250 ml overnight stationary culture were resuspended in 10 ml 50 mM Tris-HCl, pH 8.0, 100 mM EDTA, and incubated with 25 mg lysozyme for 20 minutes at 37°C. 2 ml of 10% (w/v) SDS were added to the mixture which was mixed and put on ice for 10 minutes. To the solution was then added 15 ml of phenol saturated with TE-buffer (10 mM Tris-HCl, pH 8.0, 1 mM EDTA), after which it was heated to 65°C, mixed gently and cooled on ice. After centrifugation for 30 minutes at 4000 x g the aqueous phase was extracted with ether and ethanol precipitated, and the pellet resuspended in TE-buffer. The DNA was further purified by banding- in a CsCl density gradient (ref. 27) . After purification, the DNA was resuspended in 1 ml TE-buffer. Preparation of clonable DNA fragments 9-22 kilobase pair (kb) DNA fragments with 5 r GATC overhangs were pre¬ pared in the following way. Chromosomal DNA prepared as described above was digested partially by incubation with the restriction en- donuclease Sau3A. At certain intervals after the incubation had been initiated, fractions of the. incubation mixture were stopped with 1/20 volume 0.25 M EDTA. A sample of each fraction was run in a 1% agarose gel in TAE buffer as described in (ref. 27), and a fraction contain¬ ing 4-22 kb fragments was identified. This fraction was further fractionated on a 8 ml sucrose gradient (40-10%) by layering the DNA on top of the gradient prior to ultracentrifugation at 41000 rpm for 7.5 hours. 0.5 ml subfractions were extracted, diluted with 1 volume TE-buffer, ethanol-precipitated and resuspended in TE-buffer. Two of these, containing 9-16 and 15-22 kb fragments respectively, were used in the following cloning steps. Cloning procedure 9-16 kb and 15-22 kb DNA fragments with 5'GATC overhangs were ligated with Bell restricted pUN121 (refs. 27 and 19) by means of T4 DNA ligase. Insertion of DNA into the unique Bell site of this vector leads to inactivation of the cl gene, encoding the lambda cl repres- sor, which subsequently is unable to repress transcription from the plasmid-encoded λ PL promoter into the tetracycline resistance gene. The resulting plasmids were tranformed to competent E. coli MT 102 cells as described in (ref. 27). Positive selection for clones with plasmid inserts is achieved by adding tetracycline to the medium (10 μg/ml). Using standard transformation techniques (ref. 27), 3332 tetracycline resistant recombinant E. coli clones were obtained, —100% of them containing inserts, thus constituting a P. multocida strain 45/78 gene library in E. coli . Colonies of the E. coli clones were grown on LB-plates containing 10 μg/ml of tetracycline. A scrape of these colonies was stored at -80°C in a 20% glycerol solution. EXAMPLE 5 Identification of P. multocida toxin producing E. coli clones Screening procedure The gene library was screened using the colony blot method to trans¬ fer colonies to nitrocellulose (ref. 14). PMT-producing clones were then detected by incubation of the nitro¬ cellulose filters as follows: A) 15 min. in 50 mM Tris, pH 9.6, 150 mM NaCl, 0.05% Tween-20 (washing buffer) and 2 μg/ml DNasel, B) 2 x 10 min. in washing buffer without DNasel, C) 30 min. in washing buffer and 3% gelatine and heated, D) 2 x 10 min. in washing buffer with 1% Triton X-100, E) 60 min. in a 10-fold dilution in washing buffer of a previously described hybridoma supernatant P3F51, F) 3 x 5 min. in washing buffer, G) 60 min. in washing buffer with horsera¬ dish peroxidase linked-anti-mouse Ig whole antibodies from Amersham (NA.931) diluted 1:1000, H) 3 x 5 min. in washing buffer, I) 1 min. in 10 mM Na 2 HP04, 10 mM citric acid, pH 5.0 (C/P buffer), and J) approximately 5 min. in a staining solution mixed immediately prior to use consisting of 80 mg dioctylsodiumsulfosuccinate (DONS) , 24 mg 3,3' ,5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine, 10 ml ethanol, 30 ml C/P buffer and 20 μl H2O2. The enzyme reaction was terminated by incubation in 100 mg DONS in 12.5 ml ethanol and 37.5 ml H 2 0. The following clones were found to be positive by this procedure: SPE 301, 308, 311, 312 and 315. Western blot The positive clones obtained in the screening procedure were further analyzed using the Western blot technique (ref. 32). In the Western blot procedure, one ml overnight cultures were pelle¬ ted (6000 x g for 5 min.) and resuspended in 0.5 M Tris-HCL, pH 6.8, 3% SDS, 15% glycerol, 5% ercaptoethanol and bromophenol blue. The - < s_- samples were boiled for 5 minutes prior to loading on a gel. Proteins 5 were separated by sodium dodecylsulf te polyacrylamide gel electro¬ phoresis (SDS-PAGE) (11), the separating gel consisting of 7% (w/v) acrylami.de (acrylamide/bisacryla ide ratio of 40:1) in 0.4 M.Tris, pH 6.8, 0.1% SDS, 0.05% glycerol. Subsequent transfer to nitrocellulose filters was performed in a 10 semi-dry electroblotter as described by Kyhse-Andersen (25) . Further handling of the filters was as described above in the screening procedure. The results appear from Fig. 3 which shows a Western blot of the 5 positive clones. 15 The transformant strains SPE 308 (lanes 2 and 3) and SPE 312 (lanes 5 and 6) harbouring the plasmids pSPE 308 and pSPE 312, respectively, were shown to be PMT-producing, whereas SPE 301, SPE 315 and SPE 311 were shown not to be. Purified PMT (lane 8) was used as control. The recombinant toxin produced by SPE 308 and SPE 312 shows the same 20 properties as the native protein with respect to recognition in the competitive ELISA as described in Example 1; the size and the toxic activity in the EBL test (ref. 29) are unchanged. EXAMPLE 6 Restriction mapping and localization of the PMT gene 25 The plasmids pSPE 308 and pSPE 312 were analyzed for recognition sequences for restriction enzymes (restriction sites), testing for restriction sites for most of the known enzymes with a 6 base pair (bp) recognition sequence. The results are shown in Fig. 4 (pPSPE 308) and Fig. 5 (pSPE 312). It appears from the figures- that the two 30 plasmids carry an approximately 6 kb overlap (from position 11000 to 17000 in pSPE308) . The pmt gene is therefore localized within this area. By constructing end-point deletions in the overlapping areas in pSPE 308 and pSPE 312 a number of plasmids, the pSPE 308 derivatives pSPE 336, pSPE 341, pSPE 344 and pSPE 350 as well as the pSPE 312 deriva¬ tives pSPE 338, pSPE 343, pSPE 345, pSPE 347/349 and pSPE 525 were constructed. The extents of the resulting plasmids are shown in Figs. 6 and 7. These plasmids were transformed to E. coli strain MT 102 and analyzed for the production of PMT by Western blotting as described above. In the Western blot, a single protein with an apparent molecular weight of 125000 daltons was found. The blot is shown in Fig. 8. The plasmid pSPE 349 coding for this protein is deleted of a region to the right of the £coRl site at position 8200 in pSPE 312 (cf. Fig. 5 and 7) . The gene product of plasmid pSPE 349 therefore localizes the position and orientation of the pmt gene (shown as shaded area in Fig. 5). The coding region begins about 3.3 kb upstream of the EcoRl site at position 8200 in pSPE 312 i.e. around the Clal site at posi¬ tion 4900. Since the total coding region is estimated to be about 3.9 kb the structural gene ends about position 8800 on the map shown in Fig. 5. EXAMPLE 7 Sequencing of the pmt gene The nucleotide sequence carrying the pmt gene as localized in Example 4 was determined using the method described by Sanger et al. (ref. 33). The sequence of 4381 consecutive bp were determined. The DNA sequence of the region is shown in Fig. 10 (a)-(j) in which the deduced amino acid sequence is indicated above the DNA sequence starting at position 219. The methionine codon of position 219-221 is preferred as a starting codon to the methionine codon of position 213-218 due to its perfect spacing to the putative ribosome binding site at position 201-210. The region containing the pmt gene was subjected to more detailed restriction mapping by a computer search 44 for all restriction sites for restriction enzymes with 6 bp recogni¬ tion sequences. The results are shown in Fig. 9 which shows a high degree of confor¬ mity with the previously constructed restriction map. EXAMPLE 8 Expression of P. multocida toxin in E. coli The amount of PMT produced in different recombinant E. coli clones was determined by estimating the incorporation of S-35 labelled methionine- using the following procedure. Cells were grown in AB minimal medium (ref. 21) supplemented with 0.2% glucose, 1 μg/ml thiamine and 50 μg/ml leucine at 37°C. At an optical density (OD45 Q ) of 0.6, 1 μl of a 1 mCi/ml S-35 methionine solution (purchased from Amersham, SJ. 1015) was added to a 1 ml sample of the culture at 37°C. 3 minutes later, 50 μl of 10 mg/ml unlabelled methionine was added as a chase and after further 3 minutes, the sample was put on ice. Samples were pelleted (6000xg for 5 minutes) and resuspended in loading buffer (0.5M Tris-HCl pH 6.8, 3% SDS, 15% glycerol, 5% mer- captoethanol, bromophenol blue). Subsequently, proteins were separa¬ ted in SDS-PAGE as described in Example 5. Furthermore, the gel was dried and subjected to autoradiography overnight on a KODAK XAR-5 X- ray film. Relative amounts of PMT were estimated by scanning of the X-ray film, using the β and β ' subunits of the E. coli RNA-polymerase as a reference. Recombinant clones tested in this way were MT102 strains harbouring the plasmids pSPE 312, pSPE 525 (shown in Fig. 11) and pSPE 481 (shown In Fig. 12), respectively. Plasmid pSPE 481 consists of the 7 kb Pstl fragment oflpSPE 525 ligated to a 1.3 kb Pstl fragment of plasmid pPL 195, containing part of the ampicillin resistance gene and the- lambda PL promoter and operator region. pPL 195 was construe- ted by inserting a pTJC8 EcoRI-Hindlll polylinker (ref. 33) into a EcoRl and Hindlll restricted PLc28 vector (ref. 34) . The resulting pSPE 481 plasmid carries the lambda PL promoter transcribing into the pmt gene. 45 Table 4 Estimated amount of PMT in the recombinant E. coli clones SPE312 SPE525 SPE481 molecules/cell <500 3000-4000 12000-15000 Data used in the above calculations β β' PMT Methionine content (%) 2 . 76 2 . 56 2. 80 (23 ) (24) Size (kD) 150 155 146 . (23) (24) Molecules/cell 4500 4500 (at 2.5-3 doublings/hour) (25) (25) Furthermore, the content of PMT in SPE481 was estimated using the following procedure. A 100 ml culture with an optical density OD45 Q ) of 5 was pelleted (6000 x g for 5 minutes) and resuspended in 10 ml of 50 mM Tris-HCl pH 7.0. The supernatant, which did not contain any PMT, was discarded and the harvested cells were disrupted by sonica- tion. PMT was then further purified on an anion-exchange column as described in ref. 6. The purified PMT was then subjected to a quanti- tative ELISA as described in Example 2, obtaining an estimated value of 2-5 μg PMT per ml of culture fluid. The Escherischia coli K-12 strain MT102 harbouring the pSPE 481 plasmid has been deposited 21 March, 1988 according to the Budapest Treaty in Deutsche Sammlung von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen GmbH under the strain designation Escherichia coli K-12 SPE 481. The accession number is DSM 4488. EXAMPLE 9 Production and characterization of toxin derivatives The following derivatives of toxin-encoding plasmids were constructed with the purpose of producing truncated, i.e. detoxified, toxins which are potentially useful for immunogenic purposes. The construc¬ tions were prepared on the basis of the restriction mappings dis¬ closed in Examples 6 and 7. The hypothetical toxin-derived proteins produced from plasmids pSPE A through pSPE Q, proteins A through R, are shown in Fig. 13. All derivatives were optimally expressed from the respective plasmids in strain SG 21059 kindly provided by Susan Gottesmann. The known, genotype of this strain Is- Agal lonlhβ : : TnlO Alac . 1) pSPE A. The plasmid was constructed by restricting pSPE 481 with the restriction enzyme StuI prior to ligation. This deletion causes a change of reading frame. However, as described below, a PMT derivati¬ ve could be detected in Western blotting as well as in the EBL toxi- city test. This could be due to a small amount of erroneous frame-- shifting in the translation procedure. See Fig. 13. 2) pSPE B. The plasmid was constructed by restricting pSPE 481 with the restriction enzyme Xbal prior to ligation. The plasmid codes for a hypothetical PMT derivative of about 108 kD, lacking amino acids 169 through 468 of PMT. See Fig. 13. 3) pSPE C. The plasmid was constructed by restricting pSPE 481 with the restriction enzyme Ndel prior to ligation. This deletion causes a change of reading frame. However, as described below, a PMT derivati¬ ve could be detected in small amounts. This could be due to erroneous frame-shifting in the translation procedure. See Fig. 13. 4) pSPE- D. The plasmid was constructed by restricting pSPE 481 with the restriction enzymes Ndel and SnaBI and subsequently blunt-ending the resulting ends, using T4 polymerase (purchased from New England Biolabs) as described by the manufacturer, prior to ligation. This deletion causes a change of reading frame. However, as described below, a PMT derivative could be detected in small amounts. This could be due to erroneous frame-shifting in the translation proce¬ dure. See Fig. 13. 5) pSPE E. The plasmid was constructed by restricting pSPE 481 with the restriction enzyme Hindlll prior to ligation. The plasmid codes for a hypothetical PMT derivative of about 53 kD, since this deletion causes a change of reading frame. See Fig. 13. 6) pSPE F. The plasmid was constructed by restricting pSPE 312 with the restriction enzyme Hindlll prior to ligation. Like pSPE E, this plasmid codes for a hypothetical PMT derivative of about 53 kD. See Fig. 13. 7) pSPE G. The plasmid was constructed by restricting pSPE 481 with the restriction enzymes SnaBI and Xhol and subsequently blunt-ending the resulting ends as above, prior to ligation. The plasmid codes for a hypothetical PMT derivative of about 135 kD, lacking amino acids 507 through 568 of PMT. See Fig. 13. 8) pSPE H. The plasmid was constructed by restricting pSPE 481 with the restriction enzymes SnaBI and Spel and subsequently blunt-ending the resulting ends as above, prior to ligation. The plasmid codes for a hypothetical PMT derivative of about 88 kD, lacking amino acids 569 through 1058 of PMT. See Fig. 13. 9) pSPE I. The plasmid was constructed by restricting pSPE 481 with the restriction enzyme Nsil prior to ligation. The plasmid codes for a hypothetical PMT derivative of about 79 kD, lacking amino acids 634 through 1204 of PMT. See Fig. 13. 10) pSPE J. The plasmid was constructed by restricting pSPE 312 with the restriction enzyme Nsil prior to ligation. The plasmid codes for a hypothetical PMT derivative of about 70 kD. See Fig. 13. 11) pSPE K. The plasmid was constructed by restricting pSPE 481 with the restriction enzyme Spel and blunt-ending the resulting ends as above prior to ligation. The plasmid codes for a hypothetical PMT derivative of about 117 kD. See Fig. 13. 12) pSPE L. The plasmid was constructed by restricting pSPE 312 with the restriction enzyme EcoRl prior to ligation. The plasmid codes for a hypothetical PMT derivative of about 124 kD. See Fig. 13. 13) pSPE 0. The plasmid was constructed by partially restricting non- methylated pSPE 481 with the restriction enzyme Bell prior to liga¬ tion. The plasmid codes for a hypothetical PMT derivative of 133 kD, lacking amino acids 30 through 150 of PMT. See Fig. 13. l-Λ.) pSPE P. The plasmid was constructed by restricting pSPE 481 with the restriction enzyme Spel, subsequent treatment with the exonuclea- se Bal31, restriction with EcoRl and finally treatment with Klenow fragment of DNA polymerase I in the presence of all four deoxyribo- nucleotides prior to ligation. The plasmid codes for a hypothetical PMT derivative of about 136 kD, lacking amino acids 1043 through 1130 of PMT. See Fig. 13. 15) pSPE Q. The plasmid was constructed from a derivative of pSPE 481, pSPE 680. pSPE 680 was constructed by restricting pSPE 481 with the restriction enzymes BamHI and Clal, and treatment with Klenow fragment of DNA polymerase I in the presence of all four deoxynucleo- tides prior to ligation. Subsequently, pSPE Q was constructed by restricting pSPE 680 with EcoRV prior to ligation. The plasmid codes for a hypothetical PMT derivative of 127 kD, lacking amino acids 175 through 246 of PMT. 16) pSPE R. The plasmid was constructed by restricting pSPE 481 with the restriction enzymes Spel and EcoRl and blunt-ending the resulting ends, as described above, prior to ligation. The resulting plasmid codes for a hypothetical PMT derivative of about 117 kD. See Fig. 13. The reactivity of selected derivatives with a panel of anti-PMT MAbs has been studied by sandwich ELISA's based on detection with non-- competitive combination pairs of MAbs. By this method an antigen-code (Ag-code), i.e. a term indicating the epitope-difference of the derivative compared to PMT, was determined for each derivative. The minimal cytopathic dose (MCD) on 120 μl of 1.5 x 10 5 embryonic bovine lung cells has been estimated for some affinity-purified PMT derivatives. The results of the two studies are indicated in the following table (Table 5): TABLE 5 * not affinity-purified (sonicates) n.d. : not done The antigen-code "PMT" indicates that the derivative reacts indif- ferently compared to PMT by the sandwich-ELISA, i.e. all epitopes characterized by the panel of MAbs, which are present on PMT can be detected on the derivative. The Ag-code "PMT-x", where x is α,' β or 7 indicates that the MAb(s) reacting with epitope x on PMT are not reacting with the derivative. The results of these tests shows that epitope α is missing on derivative L, β is missing on 0 and P and 7 is missing on B and C. The MCD of PMT is approx. 0.01-0.03 ng and it is therefore obvious that the abovementioned derivatives L and 0 are practically non- cytopathic compared to PMT, whereas P shows slightly remaining cyto¬ pathic activity. A Western blot was made using a mouse anti-PMT antiserum produced as described in Example 1, and using horseradish perioxidase rabbit anti-mouse Ig whole antibody (purchased from Amersham) as the secon- dary antibody. Strains harbouring the plasmids pSPE A, B, C, D, E, G, H, I and L were shown to react with the anti-PMT antiserum (cf. Fig. 14). Trials carried out on mice for elucidation of the immunogenic effect of the 0- derivative Purpose: To study the immunogenic effect of PMT after deletion in the N-termi¬ nal end (O-derivative) . Method: For the trials, BALB/c mice were used. Sexually mature female mice were immunized subcutaneously 2 times at 14 days interval with 0.3 ml O-derivative (2.5 - 5 μg/ml) in 20% ^lhydrogel (cf. Example 12) in PBS + 0.1% zero-mouse-serum. Simultaneously with the 1st vaccination the female mice were mated. Thus, the 2nd vaccination took place about 1 week before expected birth. 1) About 10 days old the baby mice were divided Into 2 groups. Half of them were dripped intranasally with PMT (totally 60 ng PMT) , the other half was injected intraperitoneally (i.p.) with PMT in different concentrations. The number of dead animals was recor¬ ded. 2) All the adult female mice were bled after killing of the survi¬ ving baby mice. The blood samples were analysed by ELISA as described in Example 13 for the presence of antibodies against PMT. Immediately after blood sampling the mice were injected i.p. with different concentrations of PMT. The number of dead animals was recorded. Schematic trial plan Trial week No. 31 female BALB/c mice were mated and subsequently immunized with O-derivative 31 female BALB/c mice were immunized for the second time with O-derivative 31 female mice delivered 122 baby mice the baby mice were divided into group I (61) which was treated intranasally with PMT. Group II (61) which was treated i.p. with PMT surviving baby mice were killed female BALB/c mice were bled female BALB/c mice were injected i.p. with PMT the number of surviving female BALB/c mice was recorded and the animals killed Trial finished Results are shown in tables 6 and 7. LD75 in non-protected baby mice was about 20 ng PMT injected i.p. LD5O ^ n notL-protected adult mice was about 70 ng PMT injected i.p. Conclusion: It can be concluded that mice born from mothers vaccinated with O-derivative vaccine in the doses described can survive i.p. injec¬ tion of min. 25 x LD50 of PMT. The protection is obtained via anti¬ bodies transferred via colostrum from mother to offspring. Furthermore It can; be concluded that.0-derivative vaccinated, animals develop antibodies against PMT, even if some variation is seen. The mice can survive i.p. injection of min. 50 x LD5 Q of PMT. Thus, mice vaccinated with O-derivative can transfer a considerable protection against PMT to the offspring via colostrum. The mice themselves develop antibodies against PMT and are protected against even high concentrations of PMT. TABLE 6 SCHEME OP VACCINATION TRIALS WITH O-FRAGMENT IM MICE (A trnm. Number of dead mice /number of i.p. injected mice TABLE 7 SCHHtE Of TRIAL WITH O-PRAGMENT IN MICE (OFFSPRING) Number of dead mice /number of i.p. injected mice EXAMPLE 10 Differentiation of PMT* and PMT ' strains by PMT -ELISA 615 field isolates and 7 reference strains of P. multocida were exam¬ ined. The field isolates were obtained from nasal swabs (603 iso- lates) and lungs (12 isolates) of pigs from 156 Danish herds and were identified by the following criteria: acid produced from glucose, saccharose, mannitol, sorbitol and not from maltose, arabinose, dul- citol and inositol; and production of indole, ornithine decarboxyl- ase, catalase, oxidase and not of urease. Extracts for toxin analyses were prepared by harvesting blood agar (9 cm Pεtri dish) overnight (37°C) cultures into 2 ml of sterile water by means of a spatula. The suspensions were left for extraction at 37°C for approximately 18 hours. One part of the extract was examined directly by PMT-ELISA as described in Example 2. All absor- bances (A) were expressed as percentages of the absorbance obtained by a positive control (AQ) . This control was a 1:1 dilution of an extract, freshly prepared for each test of the toxigenic type D reference strain P. multocida ssp . multocida 45/78. Another part was centrifuged (30 min. at 1500 x g) , the supernatant sterile filtered and subsequently examined in the EBL-cell test as described earlier refs. 22 and 29). The 615 field Isolates were characterized as toxigenic (250) or non- toxigenic (365) by the EBL-cell test and were of capsular type A (119 toxigenic and 92 non- oxigenic isolates) or D (131 toxigenic and 273 non-toxigenic isolates) . Full agreement between the EBL-cell test and the PMT-ELISA was ob¬ tained for the 615 field isolates and the 7 reference strains (Table -8) . 55 TABLE 8 EBL-cell-test PMT-ELISA a) b) 250 field isolates of P. multocida ssp . multocida 365 field isolates of P. multocida ssp . multocida Type strain (CCUG 17977) P. multocida ssp . septica Type strain (NCTC. 10204) P. multocida ssp . galicida Type strain (NCTC 10322) P. mul tocida ssp . mul tocida , type A Reference strain (ATCC 12945) P. multocida ssp . multocida , type A Reference strain (NCTC 12177) P. multocida ssp . multocida , type A Reference strain (ATCC 7707) P. multocida ssp . mul tocida , type D Reference strain (NCTC 12178) P. multocida ssp . multocida , type D a) All EBL-positive (+) bacterial extracts had EBL-titres above 10^ (median 10 4 , range 10 3 -10 6 ), in the EBL-cell test, EBL-negative (-) extracts were non-cytopathic. b) All 1:1 diluted ELISA-positive (+) bacterial extracts had relative absorbances above 39% (mean ± SD: 94% ± 13%) in the PMT-ELISA, where¬ as all ELISA-negative (-) extracts had relative absorbances below 9% (2.1% ± 1.9%). j The cytopathic and non-cytopathic extracts of the]615 field isolates were separated in two clearly distinguishable groups by the PMT-ELISA (Fig. 15). Since the mean ± SD of the absorbances (A) obtained from the 1:1 diluted extracts of the 250 toxigenic isolates was 1.72 ± 0.48, visual readings instead of photometric measurements of the ELI¬ SA-results would be satisfactory for the differentiation of extracts of P. multocida. The mean ± SD of the PMT-concentration in the ex¬ tracts of the- toxigenic isolates of P. multocida was estimated being 2.8 ± 1.9 μg/ml, and since the detection limit of the PMT-ELISA is approx. 50 pg (1 ng/ml) PMT (cf. Example 2), dilutions of the ex¬ tracts (Fig. 16) and extracts with low PMT-concentrations may appro¬ priately be tested by PMT-ELISA. The main advantages of the PMT-ELISA compared to existing tests are the independence of cell culture or laboratory animal facilities, the ability of a single laboratory worker to handle several hundreds of samples per day and the possi¬ bility of obtaining quantitative objective results from bacterial extracts in 4 hours_ EXAMPLE 11 Neutralization of PMT with monoclonal anti-PM -antibodies Samples (30 μl) of either PMT in PBS or PMT in a crude cell-free ex¬ tract of P. multocida 45/78 (ref. 6) containing PMT in amounts up to 12 ng and 1 μg of purified MAb (P3F51) were incubated for 15 min. at 20°C before application to embryonic bovine lung (EBL) cells (120 μl, 1.5 x 10^ cells/ml) as described for the original EBL-cell test (ref. 29) . The minimal cytopathic dose (MCD) of PMT was estimated when no MAb was present in the sample. The neutralization titer was recorded as the number of MCD which could be neutralized by 1 μg of MAb. The results appear from Table 9 below. Table 9 Hybridoma Representa¬ Neutralization in group No. tive MAb EBL-cell test (x MCD) a 1 P3F51 130 2 P3F64 70 3 P3F37 <2 4 P4F58 30 5 P3F22 40 6 P4F46 100 7 P4F38 35 8 P4E55 40 9 P3F50 400 10 P3F53 55 a) Neutralization of the cytopathic effect on PMT was estimated as the number of minimal cytopathic doses (MCD) neutralized by 1 μg of MAb. The MCD of PMT is about 30 pg. As indicated in Table 9, addition of 1 μg of MAb to PMT 15 min. be- fore addition to the EBL-cells resulted in a 30 to 400 times increase of the MCD for 9 out of the 10 representative MAbs, whereas MAb P3F37 had a very low neutralizing effect on PMT. The neutralization of the cytopathic effect of PMT was also achieved when a crude cell-free extract of P. multocida 45/78 was used instead of pure PMT. Samples (200 μl) containing PMT in variable amounts up to 2.56 μg and purified MAb (P3F51) in amounts between 0.15 and 15 μg were incubated for 15 min. at 20°C and injected intraperitoneally (i.p.) in female BALB/c mice (6 weeks old, 15 to 20 g) . Mice dying within a week from the time of PMT injection were recorded and the lethal dose of PMT and the neutralizing effect of the MAb was estimated. When 1.5 or 15 μg of P3F51 were added the lethal dose of PMT increased about 4 and 32 times, respectively, whereas 0.15 μg of the MAb had no neutraliz¬ ing effect. To study the in vivo neutralization ability of anti-PMT monoclonal antibodies a 200 μl solution containing 15 μg of purified monoclonal antibody (P3F51) was injected (i.p.) in female BALB/c mice (6 weeks old, 15-20 g) 2 days * before I.p. administration of a 200 μl solution containing PMT in varying amounts up to 2.56 μg either in a pure form or as a crude cell-free extract of P. multocida 45/78 (ref. 6). The neutralizing effect was estimated as described above. The lethal dose of PMT increased about 32 times when mice were pas¬ sively immunized with 15 μg of P3F51 2 days before challenge with PMT or a crude cell-free extract of P. multocida 45/78. EXAMPLE 12 Vaccination with purified PMT or derivative 0 15 mg of PMT purified as described in Example 3 in 45 ml of PBS was dialyzed against 0.35% formaldehyde in PBS, pH 7.3-7.9, for 36 hours at 4°C after which 1 g/1 lysine-HCl was added to the dialysis li¬ quid, and after 18 hours the dialysis was continued with repeated changes of PBS. The thus produced detoxified PMT was analyzed for lack of (or sufficiently reduced) toxic activity in the mouse letha¬ lity test and the cytopathic test on EBL-cells described above as well as a dermonecrotic test in guinea pigs as described by Foged et al. (1). 10 mg of biologically inactive (detoxified) PMT in 40 ml PBS was then coupled to 10 ml aluminium hydroxide gel purchased from Superfos, Denmark, under the trade name Alhydrogel as recommended by the manu- facturer and diluted in 20% aluminium hydroxide in PBS to a final concentration of about 5 μg/ml or 125 μg/ml detoxified PMT. Gesta ing gilts were immunized subcutaneously 4-6 weeks and 2-3 weeks before farrowing with a dosis of 3 ml of the detoxified PMT vaccine composition prepared above. After farrowing piglets were inoculated intranasally with Bordetella bronchiseptica and P. multocida as described in ref. 1 and the protective effect of the immunization of the sows was estimated by measuring the average daily weight gain before slaughtering of the pigs (at about 90 kg live weight) and determination of osteopathological conditions in the snout of the pigs at slaughtering. Pigs from immunized sows were compared to pigs from non-immunized sows and the protective effect of the immunization is shown in Table 10. TABLE 10 No. of animals Mean daily No. of animals (litters) weight gain with severe tur- after weaning binate atrophy (%) Pigs- from non-immunized 61 (8) 781 g 49 (80.3%) sows Pigs from immunized 174 (20) 848 g 20 (11.5%) sows In a study still in progress gilts were immunized with 50 μg/dose of affinity-purified derivative 0 from sonicates of an E. coli clone containing pSPE 0 as described in Example 9. No modifications of 0 were performed except for coupling to Alhydrogel. Preliminary results of the vaccination study indicates that: a) the serum- and colostrum titres against native PMT are similar for gilts vaccinated with derivate 0 and formaldehyde treated PMT, b) the specific antibodies are transferred to piglets through colostrum equally well in both vaccine groups. c) the clinical symptoms of atrophic rhinitis are prevented equally well in the progeny from gilts vaccinated with 0 (0-piglets) and formaldehyde treated PMT (P-piglets), and that this prevention seems to be close to 100%, when compared to piglets born by unvaccinated gilts (control piglets) . d) the toxigenic P. multocida used for the experimental In ection can be reisolated in significantly higher rates from control piglets than from 0- or P-piglets at 5 weeks of age. EXAMPLE 13 Detection of anti-PMT-antibodies By proceeding substantially as described in Example 2, but by incu¬ bating the coating monoclonal anti-PM -antibody with a pre ixed pre- paration of serum and a constant amount of PMT, it is possible to detect anti-PMT-antibodies in serum of for instance pigs infected with P. multocida or of animals vaccinated with a vaccine of the in¬ vention. The mixture which was prepared for concentrated or diluted serum samples was incubated for 30 min. at 37°C before incubation for 15 min. in the microtiter plate. The presence of anti-PMT-antibodies in the serum sample was detected by a decrease in absorbance measured substantially as described in Example 1 (the section entitled "ELISA for estimating epitope specificity"). The results are shown in Fig. 17 which shows the 50% blocking titers of serum from an anti-PMT- antibody negative pig (<2) , a pig infected with a toxin-producing P. multocida strain (about 14) and a gilt vaccinated with the vaccine described in Example 12 (about 250) . EXAMPLE 14 Detection of PMT by colony blot and immunob lotting The presence of PMT in samples may be detected by a colony blot method (ref. 14) as described in Example 5 (the section entitled "Screening procedure"). Similarly, the presence of PMT in samples may be detected by separat¬ ing proteins in the samples electrophoretically by SDS-PAGE (as de- scribed in Example 1) and transferring them electrophoretically to a nitrocellulose membrane where PMT, if present, can be visualized by immunoblotting as described in Example 1 (in the section entitled "Immunoblotting") . The electrophoretic location of the stained pro¬ tein band also gives the apparent molecular weights of PMT (approxi- mately 143 kd) . EXAMPLE 15 Genetic distinction between PMT+ and PMT- isolates of P . multocida as determined by colony hybridization P . mul tocida isolates (17 toxin-positive and 18 toxin-negative strains as determined by ELISA and EBL tests as described above) were inoculated on Tryptic Soy Broth Agar plates (purchased from DIFCO) . After incubation overnight at 37 β C, a replica was made on a nitrocel¬ lulose membrane filter (Schleicher & Schull BA 85) . This replica was placed (face up) on top of 4 consecutive Whatman 3MM filters which were soaked in 10% SDS, denaturation buffer (0.5M NaOH, 1.5M NaCl), neutralization buffer (0.5M Tris-HCl pH 8.0, 1.5M NaCl) and 2xSSPE (360 mM NaCl, 20 mM NaH 2 P0 4 , 2 mM EDTA pH 7.4), respectively. In¬ cubation was carried out for 5 minutes on each filter at room tem¬ perature. Subsequently, the nitrocellulose filter was dried and DNA was fixed to the filter by baking at 80°C for 2 hours. Prehybridiza- tion and hybridizations were done in 6 x SSC (0.15M NaCl, 0.015M sodium citrate, pH 7) , 0.5% SDS and 5 x Denhardt solution for 2 hours and overnight, respectively, at 65°C. The probe was a radioactively labelled Xbal fragment from position 1623 to 4376 in the sequence shown in Fig. 10 (a)-(j) prepared by the nick translation method (ref. 22). After hybridization the filter was washed at 25°C in 2 x SSC, 0.5% SDS for 2 x 15 min. and in 0.2 x SSC, 0.5% SDS for 2 x 1 hour at 65°C and left for autoradiography overnight. The results appear from Fig. 18 which shows that colonies at posi- tions 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 19, 22, 34, 36, 37, 39, 45 and 50 were PMT + and colonies at positions 7, 23, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 42, 44, 47, 48, 53, 56, 58, 63, 66, 73 and 75 were PMT-. These re¬ sults are in accordance with the ELISA and EBL determinations. Hence, non-toxigenic strains of P. multocida owe their lack of toxin produc¬ tion to a lack of the PMT encoding pmt gene. EXAMPLE 16 Purification of rPMT and comparison of rPMT with PMT In the toxin purification procedure, cells harvested from a l l overnight stationary culture of SPE312 were resuspended in 10 ml of H£θ and sonicated several times for 0.5 min. at 0°C using a Branson sonifier 250 (Branson, Conn., U.S.A.). The sonicate was diluted to 50 ml in 0.1 M Tris-HCl, pH 7.8 containing 0.5 M NaCl before ampliation to the affinity column which was prepared by immobilizing- the anti- PMT Mab P3F51 as described in Example 3. After repeated washings of the affinity column, rPMT was eluted with 0.1 M glycin-HCl, pH 2.8 as earlier described for the affinity purification of PMT from extracts of toxigenic P . multocida. All fractions were immediately neutralized with 1 M 2 HP0 4 . A diluted bacterial sonicate of SPE312 containing approximately 82 μg of rPMT as determined by the quantitative ELISA described in Example 2 was applied to a 1-ml affinity column to which was coupled approxi¬ mately 5 mg of anti-PMT MAb P3F51. No rPMT could be detected in the effluent from the column. Upon elution approximately 75 μg of rPMT was obtained in the two main fractions of 1.4 ml each. This corre¬ sponds to a recovery of 91% of the applied rPMT. PMT assays Quantification of rPMT was done as described for PMT (Example 2) using the capture anti-PMT MAb P3F51 and the biotinylated detector MAb P3F37 in the PMT-ELISA, a sandwich ELISA based on the same tech- nique as explained? below for the study of epitopes on rPMT and PMT. Quantification by the PMT-ELISA was compared to results obtained in a modified Coomassieξbrilliant blue dye-binding microassay previously used for the determinations of protein concentrations and dye-binding ability of PMT compared to bovine serum albumine (BSA) . Comparison of epitopes on rPMT and PMT was done by sandwich ELISA's based on 10 anti-PMT MAbs (Example 1) purified from hybridoma super- natants on protein A-agarose columns. These MAbs have been shown to react with different epitopes on PMT. The sandwich-ELISA's were done as described in Example 2. Dual determinations were performed for both antigens in all 100 combinations of the 10 catching MAbs and the same biotinylated detecting MAbs. Combination pairs of MAbs resulting in absorbances below 0.3 were considered competitive. For the non-competitive combination pairs, the results were described as the mean of dual determinations of absorbance obtained for rPMT relative to the mean of dual determinations of absorbance for PMT. The dermonecrotic and lethal effects of rPMT and PMT were determined by injecting 200 μl of dilutions of the previously ELISA-quantified samples intradermally into guinea pigs or intraperitoneally into BALB/c mice, respectively. Samples resulting in a dermal lesion of 10 mm or more at 48 h after intradermal injection were scored as dermonecrotic and samples resulting in death in less than 5 days after intraperitoneal injection were scored as lethal. All results were based on at least duplicate determinations. Affinity-purified rPMT and PMT had very similar patterns of reactions in the structural ELISA test based on 100 combination pairs of 10 different anti-PMT MAbs and 100 ng/ml of affinity purified antigen. For PMT 25 pairs resulted in an absorbance value (A492) below 0.3 which was considered to indicate competitiveness. The same 25 pairs showed competitive reactions when the antigen was 100 ng/ml rPMT. The remaining 75 non-competitive combination pairs resulted in 92 values above 0.3 both when PMT and rPMT was used. The overall mean ± SD for the 75 calculated values of the relative absorbances of rPMT compared to PMT was 112% ± 8%. Only minor differences from the over- all mean were observed for the mean values for the 10 catching MAbs and the 10 biotinylated detector MAbs. PMT and rPMT reacted very similarly when tested for cytopathic effect on EBL-cells, for dermonecrotic activity in guinea pigs, and for lethality in mice, and their ability to bind Coomassie brilliant blue were equal and approximately 2.5 times weaker than the dye-binding ability of BSA (Table 11) . TABLE 11 Cytopathic, dermonecrotic, lethal and dye-binding effects of PMT and rPMT ""~ Sample minimal minimal minimal dye-binding cytopathic dermonecrotic lethal (%) a dose (pg) dose (ng) dose (ng) PMT 20-40 15-45 25-50 40-45 rPMT 20-40 35 30 35-45 a The concentration of BSA relative to the concentration of sample resulting in equal colour formation in the Coomassie brilliant blue dye-binding microassay. EXAMPLE 17 Examination of E. coli and P. multocida sonicates for cytopathic activity. Sonicates of E. coli SPE312 and P. multocida 45/78, prepared as desc¬ ribed in Example 16 were tested for cytopathic effect in the embryo¬ nic bovine lung (EBL) cell test (ref. 29). A row of 5-fold dilutions was prepared for each sonicate and 30 μl of each sample was applied to 1.8 x 10^ EBL-cells in 120 μl of culture medium and the mixture incubated for 3 days at 37°C before fixation and staining. Samples which resulted in monolayers of EBL-cells morphologically discernible from the epithelial-like swirling patterns of negative control cul¬ ture, were scored as cytopathic. The cytopathic effects for affinity purified rPMT and PMT in the EBL-cell test were determined in the same way. The minimal cytopathic dose (MCD) for the samples was calculated as minimal amount of rPMT or PMT, determined by the quan¬ titative PMT-ELISA causing a cytopathic effect. Neutralization of the cytopathic effect of E. coli SPE 313 sonicate by anti-PMT MAbs was compared to neutralization of pure PMT: Samples (30 μl) containing approximately 1 μg of MAb and varying amounts of sonicate or PMT were incubated for 15 min. at 20°C before application to EBL-cells. The results were recorded as the number of MCDs neutra¬ lized by each MAb, and as the ratio between the number of neutralized MCDs of the sonicate and pure PMT for each MAb. Sonicates of SPE308 and SPE312 were shown to cause morphological changes of embryonic bovine lung (EBL) cells, identical to those caused by toxigenic strains of P. mul tocida (Fig. 19 (data for SPE308 not shown)). As observed for pure PMT, the cytopathic effect of the sonicate- of E. coli SPE312 could be neutralized by incubation with anti-PMT MAbs. Between 5 and 125 times MCD of the sonicate could be neutralized by various anti-PMT MAbs, whereas between 3 and 125 times MCD of the pure PMT were neutralized. The overall mean ± SD for the 10 calculated values of the relative number of neutralized MCDs of E. coli SPE312 sonicate compared to PMT was 95% ± 32%. A PMT-unrelated MAb used as a control did not neutralize the effects of the two cytopathic preparations. EXAMPLE 18 Analysis of the nature of the DNA flanking the pmt gene In an attempt to investigate the nature of the DNA flanking the pmt gene in P. multocida 45/78, chromosome walking was performed as described in ref. 37. By using a colony hybridization procedure plasmids carrying P. multocida DNA were isolated from the P. multoci ¬ da gene library described in Example 4. Probes The plasmid pLOL03 was constructed by subcloning a 0.8 kb Accl -Hin- dlll DNA fragment of pSPE344 (Fig. 20) in the vector pGEM-blue (Pro- mega, Wi, USA). The plasmid pLOR02 was likewise constructed by sub¬ cloning the 2.4 kb EcoRl -Bglll fragment of pSPE312 (Fig. 20) in the vector pGEM-blue. The E. coli K12 strain DH5alpha (BRL, Md, USA) was used as host strain for pLOL03 and pLOR02. pLOL03 and pLOR02 in linearized forms were used for generating RNA probes of the P. multo¬ cida DNA carried by these plasmids. The RNA probes were radioactively labelled using the Riboprobe System II procedure (Promega, Wi, USA), and used in the colony hybridizations and Southern blots described below. Colony hybridization The P . multocida gene library was spread in appropriate dilution on several LB-plates containing 10 μg/ml tetracycline, and incubated overnight at 37 β C. Replicas of the plates were made on nitrocellulose membrane filters, and the cells were lysed and the DNA fixed to the filters as described in example 15. Prehybridization and hybridization was performed at 65°C in 50% foπnamide, 6 x SSC (0.15 NaCl, 0.015 M tri-sodium citrate, pH 7.0), 0.1% SDS, 5 x Denhardt's solution and 200 μg/ml denatured Salmon sperm DNA for at least 2 hours and overnight, respectively. After hybridization, the filters were washed twice at room-temperature in 1 x SSC, 0.1% SDS, and twice at 65°C in 0.1 x SSC, 0.1% SDS. After washing, the filters were left overnight for autoradiography. This procedure resulted in the isolation of a number of clones car¬ rying P. multocida DNA flanking the inserts in pSPE308 or pSPE312. These clones were further analyzed using the Southern blot technique (ref. 17) . The Southern blots showed that the following plasmids were recognized by the RNA probe coded for by pLOL03: pLOAOl, pLOA02 and pLOA03. Similarly the plasmids pLOBOl, pLOB02 and pLOB03 were recog¬ nized by the RNA probe coded for by pLOR02. pLOA03 (approx. 14.2 kb) and pLOB03 (approx. 12.7 kb) carried the largest inserts. Their restriction maps and a Southern blot analysis show that pLOA03 and pSPE308 contain overlapping DNA of approximately 4.0 kb and that pLOB03 and pSPE312 contain overlapping DNA of ap¬ proximately 1.7 kb as shown in Fig. 20. 67 A Southern blot was made using DNA extracted as described in Example 4 (a KI gradient (0.875 g/ml) was used instead of the CsCl2 gradient) from the toxigenic P. multocida 45/78 and from a non-toxigenic P. multocida strain MH81P8, type D (ref. 36) and the plasmids pLOA03, pLOA02, pSPE308, pSPE312 and pLOB03 digested by restriction enzymes as indicated in Fig. 21. The probe was the 2.4 kb Bglll -EcoRI frag¬ ment of pLOB03 radioactively labelled by nicktranslation (Rigby et al., 1977, (ref. 19)). The result shows that: 1) The probe recognizes a DNA sequence on each of the plasmids ρLOA03 and pLOB03. Thus, there is a homologous sequence on each side of the pmt gene. The distance between these homologous sequences is approximately 25 kb. 2) The probe recognizes distinct fragments of the chromosomal DNA of both P. multocida strains used in this Southern blot. The above findings could indicate that the DNA flanking the pmt gene and thus the pmt gene itself has originally been carried by a bac¬ teriophage, a transposon, a plasmid or another genetic element which is integrated into the bacterial chromosome. Dot blot DNA from 24 bacteriophages isolated from P. multocida strains and all shown to be different in their lysis patterns towards a range of P. multocida strains were bound to a nylon filter by dot blotting. The plasmid pLOA03 was radioactively labelled by nicktranslation, and used as a probe against the filter. Hybridization and washing condi- tions were as described above. The results are shown in Fig. 22. The probe hybridized to 22 out of 24 bacteriophages and, as expected, to the four positive controls. By using pSPE308 and pLOB03 as probes, similar results were obtained. pSPE312 gave only a slight hybrid- zation to some of the bacteriophage genomes. The 4.5 kb pmt gene containing Clal-PvuII fragment of pSPE312 (Fig. 5) did not show any homology to any of the bacteriophage genomes (autoradiographs are not shown) . These results show that there are sequences homologous to P. multoci¬ da bacteriophage DNA on both sides of the pmt gene. This further substantiates the notion that the pmt gene is carried by a prophage. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. K.B. Pedersen and K. Barfod, 1981. The aetiological significance of Bordetella bronchiseptica amd P. multocida in atrophic rhinitis of swine. Nord . Vet . -Med . 33 : pp. 513-522. 2. J.M. Rutter and X. Rojas, 1982. Atrophic rhinitis in piglets: Differences in the pathogenicity of Pasteurella multocida in combined infections with Bordetella bronchiseptica . Vet . Rec . 110 : pp. 531- 535. 3. F. Elling and K.B. Pedersen, 1985. The pathogenesis of persistent turbinate atrophy induced by toxigenic Pasteurella multocida in pigs. Vet . Pathol . 22 : pp. 469-474. 4. K.B. Pedersen, J.P. Nielsen, N.T. Foged, F. Elling, N.C. Nielsen and P. Willeberg, 1988. Atrophic rhinitis in pigs: Proposal for a revised definition. Vet . Rec . 22 : pp. 490-491. 5. K.B. Pedersen and F. Elling, 1984. The pathogenesis of atrophic rhinitis in pigs induced by toxigenic Pasteurella multocida . J. Comp . Pathol . 94 : pp. 203-214. 6. N.T. Foged, K.B. Pedersen and F. Elling, 1987, Characterization and biological effect of the P. multocida toxin. FEMS Microbiol . Lett . 43 : pp. 45-51. 7. E.M. Kamp, P.J. v.d. Heijden and B.J. Tetenburg, 1987, Purifica¬ tion of a heat labile dermonecrotic toxin from culture fluid of Pasteurella multocida . Vet . Microbiol . 13 : pp. 235-248. 8. T. Nakai, A. Sawata, M. Tsuji, Y. Samejima and K. Kume, 1984. Purification of dermonecrotic toxin from a sonic extract of Pasteu¬ rella multocida SP- 72 serotype D . Infect. Immun. 46: pp. 429-434. 9. CL. Trummel, J.O. Cisar, M.J. Pabst and P. Goforth, 1979. Stimu¬ lation of bone resorption by a factor from Actinomyces viscosus. J. Perdont . Res . 14 : pp. 263-264. 10. P.A. Price, 1987. Structure and function of vitamin K-dependent bone proteins. In: C. Christiansen, J.S. Johansen, B.J. Riis (eds.) Osteoporosis, Nørhaven A/S, Vlborg, Denmark, pp. 656-663. 11. Casadaban and S. Cohen, 1980. Analysis of gene control signals by DNA fusion and cloning in Eschericnia coli : J. Mol . Biol . 16: pp. 118-133. 12. J. Mestecky, 1987. The common mucosal immune system and current strategies for induction of immune response in external secretions. J. Clin. Immunol . 7 (4): pp. 265-276. 13. H.W.D. Matthes, W.H. Zenke, T. Grundstrom, A. Staub, M. Wlntze- rith and P. Chambon, 1984. Simultaneous rapid chemical synthesis of over 100 oligonucleotides on a microscale. The EMBO Journal 3 : pp. 801-805. 14. 14. T. Maniatis, E.F. Frisch and J. Sambrook, 1982. Molecular cloning. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York. 15. 15. G. Kδhler and C. Milstein, 1975. Continuous cultures of fused cells secreting antibody of predefined specificity. Nature, 256: pp. 495-497. 16. G. Klein, J. Luka and J. Zeuthen, 1980. Transformation induced by Epstein-Barr virus and the role of the nuclear antigen. Cold Spring Harbor Symp . Quant. Biol . 44: pp. 253-261. 17. J.W. Goding, 1983. Monoclonal antibodies: Principles and prac¬ tice. Academic Press, London, 267 pages. 18. E. Southern, 1975, Detection of specific sequences among DN BA fragments separated by gel electrophoresis. J. Mol . Biol . 98 , pp. 503. 19. Rigby, P.W.J., Dieckmann, M. , Rhodes, C. , and Berg, P. 1977. Labelling deox ribonucleic acid to high specific activity in vitro by nick translation with DNA polymerase. I »J .Mol . Biol . 113 : pp. 237-251. 20. Gebeyechu, G. , Rao, P.Y. , SooChan, P., Simms, D.A. , and Klevan, L. 1987. Novel biotinylated nucleotide - analogs for labelling and colorimetric detection of DNA. Nucleic Acids Res . 15 : p.p. 4513-4534. 21. R.K. Saiki, S.J. Scharf, F. Faloona, K.B. Mullis, G.T. Horn, H.A. Ehrlich and N.A. Arnhiem, 1985. Enzymatic amplification of ^-globin genomic sequences and restriction site analysis for diagnosis of sickle-cell anemia. Science 230 : pp. 1350-1354. 22. J.P. Nielsen, M. Bisgaard, and K.B. Pedersen, 1986 " , Production of toxin in strains previously classified as P. multocida . Acta Path . Microbiol . Immunol . Scand . Sec . B , 94 : pp. 203-204. 23. S. Fazekas, Groth, S. and D. Scheidegger, Production of mono- clonal antibodies: Strategy and tactics, J. Immunol . Meth . 35 , 1980, pp. 1-21. 24. U.K. Laemmli, 1970. Cleavage of structural proteins during the assembly of the head of bacteriophage T4. Nature 227 : pp. 680-685. 25. J. Kyhse-Andersen, 1984, Electroblotting of multiple gels: A sim- pie apparatus without buffer tank for rapid transfer of proteins from polyacrylamide to nitrocellulose. J. JBioc em. Biophys . Methods 10: pp. 203-209. 26. O.J. Bjerrum, K.P. Larsen and M. Wilken, 1983. Some recent deve¬ lopments of the electroimmunochemical analysis of membrane proteins. Application of Zwittergent, Triton X-114 and western blotting tech¬ nique, pp. 79-124. In H. Tschesche (ed.), Modern methods in protein chemistry. Walther de Gruyter Berlin, New York. 27. L.J. Anderson, J.C. Hierholzer, Y.O. Stone, C. Tsou and B.F. Fernie, 1986. Identification of epitopes on respiratory syncytial virus proteins by competitive binding immunoassay. J. Clin . Micro¬ biol . 23 : pp. 475-480. 28. J.L. Guesdon, T. Ternynck and T. Avrameas, 1979. The use of avidin-biotin interaction in immunoenzymatic techniques. J. Histo- chem. Cytochem. 27: pp. 1131-1139. 29. H. Towbin, T. Staehlin and J. Gordon, 1979, Electrophoretic transfer of proteins from polyacrylamide gel to nitrocellulose she¬ ets: Procedure and applications. Proc. Natl . Acad. Sci . USA 76 : pp. 4350-4354. 30. M.J. Casabadan and S. Cohen, 1980. Analysis of gene control signals by DNA fusion and cloning in Escherichia coli . J. Mol . Biol . 138: pp. 179-207. 31. W.B. Wood, 1966. Host specificity of DNA produced by Escherichia coli : Bacterial mutations affecting the restriction and modification of DNA. J. Mol . Biol . 16 : pp. 118-133. 32. B. Nilsson, M. Uhlen, S. Josephson, S. Gatenbeck and L. Philip- son, 1983, An improved positive selection plasmid vector constructed by oligonucleotide mediated mutagenesis, Nucleic Acids Res . 11(22): pp. 8019-8030. 33. F. Sanger, S. Nicklin and A.R. Coulson, 1977. DNA sequencing with chain-terminating inhibitors. Proc . Natl . Acad. Sci . USA 74 : pp. 5463-5467. 34. D.J. Clark and 0. Maaløe, 1967. DNA replication and the division cycle in Escherichia coli . J. Mol . Biol . 23 : 99-112. 35. K.K. Stanley, 1983, Solubilization and immune-detection of β- galactosidase hybrid proteins carrying foreign antigenic determi- nants. Nucleic Acids Res . 11(12): pp. 4077-4092. 36. J.M. Rutter, 1983. Virulence of Pasteurella multocida in atrophic rhinitis of gnotobiotic pigs infected with Bordetella bronchiseptica. Res . Vet. Sci . 34: pp. 287-295. 37. K. Kaiser and N. Murry, 1985: The use of phage lambda replacement vectors in the construction of representative genomic DNA libraries. In: DNA cloning, Vol. I, A practical approach, D.M. Glover (ed.) IRL Press, Oxford. 327985/HS/NO ,„ :.e7national Application No: PCT/ MICROORGANISMS Optional Sheet in connection with the microorganism referred to on page 1 _ , line — _LU of the description * A. 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SEPARATE FURNISHING OF INDICATIONS • (leave blank If not applicable) The indications listed below will be submitted to the International Bureau later ' (Specify the general nature of the indications e.g., " Accession Number of Deposit ") E. f~j This sheet was received with the international application when filed (to be checked by the receiving Office) I I The date of receipt (from the applicant) by the International Bureau " (Authorized Officer) 327985/HS/NO International Application No: PCT/

Claims: 77 CLAIMS 1. A vaccine for immunizing an animal, including a human being, against diseases caused by microorganisms producing an osteolytic toxin, the vaccine comprising an immunogenieally effective amount of a recombinant, immunogenic, detoxified Pasteurella multocida toxin or toxin analogue together with an immunologically acceptable carrier or vehicle. 2. A vaccine according to claim 1, wherein the toxin or toxin analo¬ gue is detoxified by thermal treatment, treatment with a chemical, mutagenization, by substitution, deletion, addition or insertion of one or more amino acids in the toxin protein, or by substitution, addition, insertion or deletion of one or more base pairs in the nucleotide sequence coding for the toxin or toxin analogue. 3. A vaccine according to claim 2, wherein the chemical is selected from formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde and a suitable proteolytic enzyme. 4. A vaccine according to claim 1, wherein the toxin or toxin analo¬ gue is in substantially pure form. 5. A vaccine according to claim 1, wherein the microorganism pro¬ ducing an osteolytic toxin is P. mul tocida . 6. A vaccine according to claim 1, wherein the toxin or toxin analo¬ gue is encoded by a DNA sequence substantially as shown in Fig. 10 (a)-(j) or a subsequence or analogue thereof encoding an immunogenic subsequence of the toxin or toxin analogue. 7. A vaccine according to any of claims 1-6, wherein the toxin or toxin analogue is fused to another polypeptide. 8. A vaccine according to claim 7, wherein the polypeptide to which the toxin is fused is selected from bovine serum albumin, ovalbumin, keyhole limpet hemocyanin, lysozyme and another immunogenic peptide. 9. A vaccine according to claim 1, which further comprises an adju¬ vant. 10. A vaccine according to claim 9, wherein the adjuvant is selected from Freund's complete or incomplete adjuvant, aluminium hydroxide, Bordetella pertussis, a saponin, a muramyl dipeptide, an iscome and an oil, such as a vegetable oil, e.g. peanut oil, or a mineral oil, e.g. silicone oil. 11. A vaccine according to claim 1, wherein the carrier is a macromo¬ lecular carrier. 12. A vaccine according to claim 11, wherein the macromolecular carrier is selected from polysaccharides and polypeptides. 13. A vaccine according to claim 11 or 12, wherein the toxin or toxin analogue is multlvalently coupled to the macromolecular carrier. 14. A vaccine according to claim 1, wherein the toxin or toxin analo- gue is self-polymerized. 15. A vaccine according to claim 1, which is in the form of a tablet, granule or capsule intended for oral administration and provided with an enteric coating. 16. A vaccine according to claim 15, wherein the enteric coating is selected from shellac, cellulose acetate esters such as cellulose acetate phthalate, hydroxypropylmethyl cellulose esters such as hydroxypropylmethyl cellulose phthalate, polyvinyl acetate esters such as polyvinyl acetate phthalate, and polymers of methacrylic acid and methacrylic acid esters. 17. A DNA fragment comprising a nucleotide sequence coding for a Pasteurella multocida toxin or toxin analogue. 18. A DNA fragment according to claim 17, wherein the nucleotide sequence is derived from a Pasteurella multocida genome. 19. A DNA fragment according to claim 17, wherein the nucleotide sequence is derived from a bacteriophage infectious for Pasteurella multocida or from a plasmid. 20. A DNA fragment according to claim 17, wherein the nucleotide sequence is a synthetic sequence. 21. A DNA fragment according to claim 17, wherein the nucleotide sequence is a mixed genomic and synthetic sequence. 22. A DNA fragment according to claim 17 which has been modified by substitution, addition, insertion or deletion of one or more nucleo- tides in the sequence. 23. A DNA fragment according to any of claims 17-22, which comprises a nucleotide sequence substantially as shown in Fig. 10 (a)-(j) or a modification thereof. 24. A DNA fragment according to claim 17, which further comprises a nucleotide sequence encoding another polypeptide fused to the nucleo¬ tide sequence encoding the toxin or toxin analogue. 25. An expression vector which is capable of replicating in a host microorganism and which carries a DNA fragment according to any of claims 17-24. 26. An expression vector according to claim 25 which is any one of the plasmids pSPE A-R as shown in Fig. 13. 27. A microorganism capable of expressing a DNA fragment according to any of claims 17-24 and containing a vector according to claim 25 or 26. 28. A microorganism according to claim 27 which is a bacterium. 29. A microorganism according to claim 28 which is a gramnegative bacterium, in particular E. coli . 30. A method of producing an immunogenic detoxified Pasteurella multocida toxin or toxin analogue, the method comprising a) isolating a nucleotide sequence coding for the Pasteurella multo¬ cida toxin or toxin analogue, b) inserting said sequence, optionally in suitably modified form resulting in the expression of the detoxified toxin or toxin analogue or a subsequence coding for an immunogenic subsequence of the toxin or toxin analogue, In an expression vector, c) transforming a suitable host microorganism with the vector pro- duced In step b) , d) cultivating the microorganism produced in step c) under suitable conditions for expressing the toxin or toxin analogue, e) harvesting the toxin or toxin analogue from the culture, and f) optionally subjecting the toxin to posttranslational modifications to produce the detoxified toxin or toxin analogue. 31. A method according to claim 30, wherein the sequence coding for the toxin or toxin analogue is modified by substitution, addition, insertion or deletion of one or more nucleotides in the sequence. 32. A method according to claim 30, wherein the optional posttrans- lational modifications in step f) are selected from thermal treat¬ ment, treatment with a chemical, and substitution, addition, inser¬ tion or deletion of.one or more amino acids in the toxin or toxin analogue. _ 33. A method according to claim 32, wherein the chemical is selected from formaldehyde , jglutaraldehyde and a suitable proteolytic enzyme. ϊ I 34. A method of producing a vaccine for immunizing an animal, in¬ cluding a human being, against diseases caused by microorganisms producing an osteolytic toxin, the method comprising formulating the toxin or toxin analogue produced by the method of any of claims 30-33 with an immunolo ically acceptable carrier or vehicle. 35. A non- athogenic microorganism which carries and is capable of expressing an inserted nucleotide sequence coding for an immunogenic detoxified Pasterurella multocida toxin or toxin analogue for use as a live vaccine for the immunization of an animal against diseases caused by microorganisms producing an osteolytic toxin. 36. A microorganism according to claim 35, wherein the nucleotide sequence coding for the toxin or toxin analogue is modified by sub- stitution, addition, insertion or deletion of one or more nucleotides in the sequence-. 37. A microorganism according to claim 35, wherein the nucleotide sequence coding for the toxin or toxin analogue is expressed on the outer surface of the host cell. 38. A microorganism according to claim 37, wherein the nucleotide se¬ quence coding for the toxin or toxin analogue is fused to another nucleotide sequence encoding a surface protein or a subsequence thereof which causes the toxin or toxin analogue to be expressed on the outer surface of the host cell, optionally as a fused polypepti- de. 39. A microorganism according to claim 38, wherein the surface pro¬ tein is selected from fimbrial proteins or adhesins or the LamB protein from E. coli . 40. Use of a recombinant detoxified immunogenic Pasteurella multocida toxin or toxin analogue for preparing a vaccine for the immunization of an animal, including a human being, against diseases caused by microorganisms producing an osteolytic toxin. 41. Use according to claim 40, wherein the toxin or toxin analogue is one encoded by the DNA fragment of claim 23. 42. A method of immunizing an animal, including a human being, against diseases caused by microorganisms producing an osteolytic toxin, the method comprising administering to the animal an immunoge- nically effective amount of a recombinant detoxified immunogenic Pasteurella multocida toxin or toxin analogue. 43. A method according to claim 42, wherein the toxin or toxin analo¬ gue is one encoded by the DNA fragment of claim 23. 44. A monoclonal antibody which is directed against or reactive with a Pasteurella multocida toxin or toxin analogue, or a fragment of said antibody. 45. A monoclonal antibody according to claim 44 which has been raised against the Pasteurella multocida toxin produced by Pasteurella multocida ssp. multocida 45/78, NCTC 12178. 46. A monoclonal antibody according to claim 45 which is produced by the hybridoma cell line P3F37, ECACC 87120301, or P3F51, ECACC 87120302, or by clones or subclones thereof or by cells carrying genetic information from the hybridoma cell lines P3F37 or P3F51 coding for said monoclonal antibody. 47. A method of producing a monoclonal antibody according to claim 44 comprising a) immunizing a suitable animal or animal cell with an immunogenic Pasteurella multocida toxin or toxin analogue to obtain cells pro¬ ducing an antibody to said toxin or toxin analogue, b) fusing cells producing the antibody with cells of a suitable myeloma cell line,and selecting and cloning the resulting hybridoma cells producing said antibody, or c) immortalizing an unfused cell line producing said antibody, follo¬ wed by d) growing the cells of step b) or c) in a suitable medium to produce said antibody and harvesting the antibody from the growth medium. 48. A method according to claim 47, wherein the fusion in step b) is performed in the presence of a fusion promoter such as polyethylene glycol. 49. A method according to claim 47, wherein the immunized animal is selected from a rabbit, sheep, goat, mouse, rat, goat, horse and guinea pig. 50. A method according to claim 47, wherein the cell producing the antibody are spleen or lymph cells. 51. A method according to claim 47, wherein the hybridoma cells pro¬ duced in step b) are grown in vitro or in a body cavity of an animal such as a mouse. 52. A diagnostic agent which comprises a monoclonal antibody accor- ding to any of claims 44-46. 53. A diagnostic agent according to claim 52, wherein the antibody is provided with a label. 54. A diagnostic agent according to claim 53, wherein the label is selected from enzymes, fluorescers, radioactive isotopes and com- plexing agents such as biotin. 55. A diagnostic agent according to claim 52, wherein the antibody is coupled to a solid support. 56. A diagnostic agent according to claim 52, which additionally comprises a polyclonal antibody. 57. A method of determining the presence of a Pasteurella multocida toxin or toxin analogue in a sample, the method comprising incubating the sample with a monoclonal antibody according to any of claims 44- 84 46 and detecting the presence of bound toxin or toxin analogue re¬ sulting from said incubation. 58. A method according to claim 57, wherein the antibody is provided with a label. 5 59. A method according to claim 58, wherein the label is selected from enzymes, fluorescers, radioactive Isotopes, and complexing agents such as biotin. 60. A method according to claim 57, wherein the antibody is coupled to a solid support. 10 61. A method according to claim 60, wherein the solid support is selected from plates, strips, beads, film and paper. 62. A method according to claim 61, wherein the solid support compri¬ ses a polymer. 63. A method according to claim 61, wherein the polymer Is selected 15 from plastics, e.g. latex, polystyrene, polyvinylchloride, nylon or polyvinylidene difluoride, cellulose and silicone or silica. 64. A method according to claim 57, wherein the sample is incubated with a first monoclonal antibody coupled to a solid support and sub¬ sequently with a second monoclonal or polyclonal antibody provided 20 with a label. 65. A method according to claim 57, wherein the sample is incubated with a monoclonal antibody coupled to a solid support and subsequent¬ ly with a Pasteurella multocida toxin or toxin analogue provided with a label. 25 66. A method according to any of claims 57-65, wherein the sample is selected from bacterial suspensions, bacterial extracts., culture supematants, animal body fluids and intermediate or final vaccine products. 85 67. A composition for the passive immunization of an animal, inclu¬ ding a human being, against diseases caused by microorganisms pro¬ ducing an osteolytic toxin, which comprises a monoclonal antibody according to any of claims 44-46 and a suitable carrier or vehicle. 68. A method of passive immunization of an animal, including a human being, against diseases caused by microorganisms producing an osteo¬ lytic toxin, the method comprising administering to the animal an effective immunizing amount of a composition according to claim 67. 69. A diagnostic agent for the detection of Pasteurella mul tocida toxin-producing microorganisms or bacteriophages containg a pmt gene, which comprises a labelled DNA sequence homologous with a DNA sequen¬ ce coding for a Pasteurella multocida toxin or toxin analogue. 70. A diagnostic agent according to claim 69, wherein the label is selected from radioactive isotopes, enzymes and complexing agents such as biotin. 71. A method for detection of the presence of a Pasteurella multocida toxin producing microorganism in a sample as defined in claim 66, the method comprising amplifying a DNA sequence coding for Pasteurella mul tocida toxin or toxin analogue contained in said microorganism by use of oligonucleotide sequences substantially complementary to at least part of a DNA fragment as defined in any of claims 17-24 in the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) followed by detection according to claim 69. 72. A method according to claim 71, wherein the detecting nucleotide sequence is provided with a label. 73. A method according to claim 72, wherein the label is selected from radioactive isotopes, enzymes and complexing agents such as biotin. 74. A method of isolating a Pasteurella mul tocida toxin or toxin analogue, the method comprising adsorbing a biological material containing said toxin ot toxin analogue to a matrix comprising an immobilized monoclonal antibody according to any of claims 44-46, eluting said toxin or toxin analogue from said matrix and recovering said toxin or toxin analogue from the eluate. 75. A method of determining the presence of antibodies against a Pasteurella multocida toxin or toxin analogue in a sample, the method comprising incubating the sample with a Pasteurella multocida toxin or toxin, analogue and detecting the presence of bound antibody resul¬ ting from said incubation. 76. A method according to claim 75, wherein the toxin or toxin analo- gue Is provided with a label. 77. A method according to claim 76, wherein the label is selected from enzymes, fluorescers, radioactive isotopes and complexing agents such as biotin. 78. A method according to claim 75, wherein the toxin or toxin analo- gue is coupled to a solid support. 79. A method according to claim 75, wherein the sample is selected from animal body fluids such as serum, colostrum or nasal mucous. 80. Use of a Pasteuralla multocida toxin or toxin analogue produced according to any of claims 30-33 for preparing a toxin standard or reference preparation to be used as the standard of comparison in a qualitative or a quantitative determination of the said toxin or toxin analogue. 81. Use according to claim 80, wherein the standard or reference preparation is freeze-dried.

Inventors: PETERSEN SVEND, TAEKKER FOGED NIELS, PETERSEN, SVEND, TAEKKER FOGED, NIELS
Applicants: NORDISK DROGE & KEMIKALIE, STATENS VETERINAERE SERUMLABOR, NORDISK DROGE & KEMIKALIE A/S, STATENS VETERINAERE SERUMLABORATORIUM
Application year: 1989
Main classification: A61K39
IPC codes: A61K39, C07K14, C07K16, C12N15, G01N33