The protective antigens of equine herpesvirus type 1.

Equine herpesvirus type 1 was cultivated in swine testis cell cultures and partially purified by differential centrifugation and centrifugation in a linear sucrose density gradient. The viral envelope was separated from the nucleocapsid by treatment with Rexol 25J followed by sucrose gradient centrifugation. The envelope and nucleocapsid preparations were then electrophoresed in polyacrylamide gel after solubilization with sodium dodecyl sulphate. Hamsters were immunized with various preparations of the partially purified virus, including live or inactivated equine herpesvirus type 1 and viral envelope and nucleocapsid, all derived from the Kentucky D strain of the virus. Challenge of the immunized hamsters, with a hamster-adapted strain of equine herpesvirus type 1 demonstrated protection only in those animals which had been vaccinated with envelope-containing materials. When vaccination was carried out with fractions of electrophoresed envelope or nucleocapsid, protection was induced only by polypeptides of high molecular weight containing a glycoprotein component of the envelope of equine herpesvirus type 1.