Immunogenicity of bluetongue virus inactivated by gamma irradiation.

The immunogenicity of vaccines prepared from bluetongue viruses inactivated by gamma irradiation was tested by their ability to stimulate the production of neutralizing antibody in mice. Antibody titres induced by monovalent and polyvalent vaccines, vaccines prepared from virus produced in mice and cell cultures and vaccines containing virus exposed to six, eight and ten megarads of irradiation indicated that immunogenicity was not adversely affected by the inactivation procedure. The results suggest that gamma irradiation would be an effective means of inactivating bluetongue virus without affecting antigenic determinants for neutralizing antibody.