Division 3

A monoclonal antibody-based ELISA can be used to study antigenic variation among strains of swine vesicular disease virus. Tissue-culture grown viral antigens are trapped by a rabbit hyperimmune anti-serum to swine vesicular disease adsorbed to the solid phase. Appropriate panels of monoclonal antibodies are then reacted and the binding of monoclonal antibodies to field strains is compared to the binding of monoclonal antibodies to the parental strains. Similar binding indicates the presence of epitopes shared between the parental and the field strains.