PRODUCTION, PRELIMINARY CHARACTERIZATION AND APPLICATIONS OF MONOCLONAL-ANTIBODIES TO PORCINE CIRCOVIRUS

The preparation of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to porcine circovirus is described. Preliminary characterisation was carried out on nine mAb s obtained from two fusions and included isotyping, virus neutralisati on assays and indirect immunofluorescence staining patterns obtained f ollowing immunostaining of both a porcine circovirus (PCV)-persistentl y infected pig kidney (PK/15/W) and Vero (Vero-PCV) cell line. Signifi cant differences in the staining patterns were observed in both cell l ines which appeared to be dependent on the subculture status of the Ve ro-PCV cultures. The development of a mAb-based antigen capture enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) as an aid to virus purification is also described. The use of mAbs for the detection of PCV antigen in c ryostat sections from a pig experimentally infected with the virus lea ding to identification of the sites of replication of PCV is also repo rted.