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 mAbs obtained from two fusions and included isotyping, virus neutralisation assays and indirect immunofluorescence staining patterns obtained following immunostaining of both a porcine circovirus (PCV)-persistently infected pig kidney (PK/15/W) and Vero (Vero-PCV) cell line. Significant differences in the staining patterns were observed in both cell lines which appeared to be dependent on the subculture status of the Vero-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 cryostat sections from a pig experimentally infected with the virus leading to identification of the sites of replication of PCV is also reported.