Antigenic relationship among strains of ibaraki virus and epizootic haemorrhagic disease virus studied with monoclonal antibodies.

Twelve monoclonal antibodies against ibaraki virus (IbV) were established and preliminarily characterised by indirect immunoperoxidase (IIP), haemagglutination inhibition (HI) and neutralisation (NT) tests. Five antibodies reacted in the IIP test with all IbV and epizootic haemorrhagic disease virus (EHDV) strains tested, and five antibodies reacted with IbV and Alberta strain (serotype 2) but not with New Jersey strain (serotype 1) of EHDV. Two of 12 antibodies showed both HI and NT activities. Viral proteins with molecular weights of about 24,000 daltons (24KD) and 78KD were determined by two monoclonal antibodies in Western blot analysis. One of two antibodies with the ability of both HI and NT recognised a viral protein with a molecular weight of about 78KD.