J. R. Smith

Blocking enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for detection of antibodies against bovine enterovirus.

A blocking enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed for detecting antibodies against bovine enterovirus (BEV) in bovine sera. In this ELISA, bovine serum samples were allowed to react with captured viral antigens (by specific chicken IgG), before the addition of specific mouse IgG for measuring non-occupied viral epitopes. The ELISA was slightly more sensitive and required a shorter time period than traditional serum neutralisation (SN). Among the 871 bovine serum samples tested so far, the titres produced by this assay had a significant correlation with those recorded by SN. The ELISA could be used as an alternative assay for SN in a large-scale BEV antibody investigation.

A simple procedure to obtain continuous cell lines from bovine peripheral blood leucocytes

A method is described by which cell lines can be readily developed from bovine peripheral leucocytes. Fifteen cell lines have been developed from 25 attempts, passage levels up to 60 being reached. The cell lines are aneuploid and predominantly epithelial, show split ratio capabilities of 1:4 to give monolayers with 5 days of routine passage, and have high resistance to laboratory contamination with bacterial and fungal agents. Data are given concerning establishment, morphology, viral susceptibility and chromosomal counts of established cell lines.

Use of polyethylene glycol treated sera for virus production in cell culture

Abstract Treatment with 10% polyethylene glycol 6000 (PEG) was shown to efficiently remove viral antibody and non-specific inhibitors from sera used as supplements in cell culture media, and was considerably better than treatment with 6% PEG, as had been recommended by previous workers. Sera treated with 10% PEG were still able to promote active cell growth and were very suitable for virus culture procedures.