Serological analyses of different mink Aleutian disease virus strains.

Four different isolates of Aleutian disease virus have been compared electrophoretically and serologically. These were the DK and Utah 1 isolates, known as highly virulent strains, the Pullman isolate, known as a low virulent strain and the avirulent ADV-G isolate, which is the only strain grown in cell culture. ADV-G was shown to migrate in agarose electrophoresis 22 per cent slower than the other strains. Several murine monoclonal antibodies were prepared against each of the isolates. Each one reacted with all 4 of the isolates, but a few showed higher affinity for some of the isolates. Competitive RIA analyses were also performed, and these studies indicated some serological differences between the 4 strains. It is concluded that ADV-G polypeptides are chemically different but immunologically cross-reacting with the polypeptides present on the field ADV strains. It is suggested that the small serological differences seen between the field strains might be caused by slightly different in vivo proteolytic degradation of the viral capsid proteins and thus might not be taken as an indication of strain variation.