Since late 2011, porcine infections with highly virulent and antigenic variant of pseudorabies virus (PRV) cause great economic loss in the swine industry in China, and its emergence leads to variable protection efficacy of the commercially available PRV vaccine.

In the present study, the potential cross-protective efficacy of two live virus vaccines, includ- ing a commercial vaccine, and an attenuated low pathogenic PRV variant (rPRVTJ-delTK/gE/gI) against a PRV variant Tianjing (TJ) was evaluated in piglets. Vaccination of piglets with the live vaccine Bartha-K61 could not reduce the clinical signs, and was partially efficacious in the reduc- tion of viral loads upon PRV variant TJ challenge, indicating that this live vaccine provided limited cross-protection efficacy against the PRV variant infection. Additionally, rPRVTJ-delTK/gE/gI appeared to exert some beneficial efficiency in shortening the period of clinical fever and improv- ing the growth performance of the challenged pigs.

Our findings give a valuable guidance for the choice and use of PRV vaccines to control PRV variant infection in the field.

The microstructures and mechanical properties of T92 martensitic steel/Super304 austenitic steel weld joints with three welding consumables were investigated. Three types of welding materials ERNiCr-3, ERNiCrCoMo-1and T-304H were utilized to obtain dissimilar welds by using gas tungsten arc weld (GTAW). The results show that heat affect zone (HAZ) of T92 steel consists of coarse-grained and fine-grained tempered martensites. The microstructures of joints produced from ERNiCrCoMo-1 consist of equiaxed dendrite and columnar dendrite grains, which are more complicated than that of ERNiCr-3. In the tensile tests, joints constructed from ERNiCrCoMo-1 and T-304H met the ASME standard. The highest fracture energy was observed in specimens with the welding material ERNiCrCoMo-1. Ni content in weld seam of ERNiCrCoMo-1 was highest, which was above 40%. In conclusion, the nickel alloy ERNiCrCoMo-1 was the most suitable welding material for joints produced from T92 martensitic steel/Super304 austenitic steel.