PRODUCTION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF MONOCLONAL-ANTIBODIES TO A VEILLONELLA SPECIES FROM A CONTINUOUS-FLOW CULTURE SYSTEM OF CHICKEN CECAL BACTERIA

Administering native intestinal nora to newly hatched chicks protects against cecal Salmonella colonization, and is known as competitive exc lusion. Continuous-flow culture systems have been used to maintain def ined competitive exclusion cultures. We have recently demonstrated tha t such a stable continuous-flow culture, CF3, contains 29 bacterial st rains representing ten genera. Broiler chicks treated with CF3 are pro tected against Salmonella colonization of the ceca. Such protection is correlated with elevated concentrations of proprionic acid in the cec al contents of treated chicks. In this study we report on the preparat ion and characterization of monoclonal antibodies to one of the propri onic acid producing anaerobes contained in CF3, namely Veillonella CF3 . Five different monoclonal antibodies were characterized with respect to: (1) isotype; (2) Veillonella specificity as judged by cross-react ivity profiles with other bacteria; (3) sensitivity as measured by the Limit of detection of the number of colony forming units of Veillonel la; and (4) antigen recognition of Veillonella by Western Blot analysi s. These antibodies have been used to enumerate Veillonella in both th e CF3 cultures and in the ceca of young chicks. (C) 1997 Academic Pres s.