Bovine monoclonal antibodies specific for bovine herpesvirus-1 glycoprotein gIII.

Spleen cells from a calf immunized with bovine herpesvirus-1 (BHV-1) were fused with the nonsecreting murine cell line SP2/0. Several bovine-murine hybridomas secreting bovine immunoglobulins were stabilized. Of these, 9 hybridomas secreted bovine monoclonal antibodies that specifically bound to BHV-1 in a radioimmunoassay. Two of these monoclonal antibodies reacted specifically with BHV-1 in an indirect fluorescent antibody test and immunoprecipitated a BHV-1 glycoprotein with molecular mass of 97 kilodaltons.