Antigenic characterization of bovine viral diarrhoea virus isolates from spain with a panel of monoclonal antibodies

A group of 47 bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) strains isolated from a v ariety of bovine tissues from eight different geographical areas of Spain a nd two BVDV strains isolated from a cell line were characterized antigenica lly with a panel of 23 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). The mAbs were directed at one of three viral proteins: E2, E-ms and NS2-3. A peroxidase-linked as say was used to test the mAbs for reactivity against infected cell monolaye rs. The data were analysed by two computational methods: the Antigenic Dist ance Program (MAP) and the Phylogeny Inference Package (PHYLIP), and compar ed with those obtained previously using the same mAbs with other pestivirus es, including reference strains and UK field isolates. All the Spanish fiel d strains studied appeared to be broadly similar to reference strains of BV DV and were included in the subgroup of classical BVDV, meanwhile the two s trains isolated from a cell line were included in the subgroup of atypical pestiviruses.