Abstract Safety tested Modified Vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA) is licensed as third-generation
vaccine against smallpox and serves as a potent vector system for development of new
candidate vaccines against infectious diseases and cancer. Historically, MVA was
developed by serial tissue culture passage in primary chicken cells of vaccinia virus strain
Ankara, and clinically used to avoid the undesirable side effects of conventional smallpox
vaccination. Adapted to growth in avian cells MVA lost the ability to replicate in mammalian …