Propagation and infectivity titration of the Gifu-1 strain of chicken anemia agent in a cell line (MDCC-MSB1) derived from Marek's disease lymphoma.

Chicken anemia agent (CAA) propagated in an established cell line derived from Marek's disease (MD) lymphoma (MDCC-MSB1). When passaged 19 times in MDCC-MSB1 cell cultures, it produced anemia of the same severity in chicks as it did before passage. Titration of the infectivity of CAA was performed successfully with subcultures of MDCC-MSB1 cell cultures which had been inoculated with serial tenfold dilutions of infected material. In it, no infected cultures could be subcultured. The propagation of CAA was also proved in the MD cell line, MDCC-JP2, and the avian lymphoid leukosis (LL) cell line, LSCC-1104B1, but not in the two MD cell lines, MDCC-RP1 and MDCC-BP1, or in the two LL cell lines, LSCC-1104X5 and LSCC-TLT. No CAA propagated in cell cultures prepared from skin and muscle, liver, or brain of chick embryos, or kidney, thymus, bursa of Fabricius, bone marrow, or white blood cells of chickens.