An objective of the present invention is to provide a whole-cell bacterial vaccine composition for preventing whooping cough caused by Bordetella parapertussis, comprising whole cells, whole-cell homogenate, or cell lysate of B . parapertussis as an immunogen, and methods for producing them. To accomplish the above-mentioned objective, first, the present inventors cultured B . parapertussis cells at 37°C for three days, adjusted the cell concentration to 10 10 cells/mL, and added a formaldehyde solution to a final formalin concentration of 0.2% for inactivation. These bacterial cells were adjusted to be equivalent to a cell concentration of 10 10 cells/mL by adding a sterilized physiological phosphate buffered saline to obtain a vaccine composition. The vaccine composition of the present invention was inoculated into mice (3.5 weeks old), and the mice were infected with a B . parapertussis suspension solution. The results revealed that the mice had a protective activity against B . parapertussis infection, and that the vaccine composition exhibited an infection protective activity even at 1/30 of the ordinary inoculum dose of pertussis vaccines.
