Studies on antibodies against feline leukaemia virus (FeLV) in cat sera and rabbit anti-FeLV sera: cross reaction and differences.
The indirect immunoferritin technique (IFT) that enables us to distinguish clearly whether an antibody reacts with a virus particle or only with the cell membrane, was used to study 25 cat sera and one rabbit anti-feline leukaemia virus (FeLV) serum using FL-74 cells as target. (1) All sera contained antibodies against FeLV even though 11 of the cats were viraemic  at the same time; (2) from the effect of glutaraldehyde fixation of the FL-74 cells on the reaction with cat sera and the results of blocking experiments, it could be concluded that cat sera and rabbit anti-FeLV sera react partly with different antigenic specificities of FeLV, partly with the same antigens; and (3) the indirect membrane immunofluorescence test using FL-74 cells as target is not a good test to detect the presence of antibodies against feline oncornavirus-associated cell membrane antigen (FOCMA) because FL-74 cells produce a large quantity of FeLV and the fluorescence measured could be from antibodies against FeLV.
D000818:Animals; D000906:Antibodies / Q000032:analysis*; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000032:analysis*; D000937:Antigen-Antibody Reactions; D000954:Antigens, Surface / Q000276:immunology*; D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000276:immunology; D002415:Cats; D002460:Cell Line; D000939:Epitopes; D005293:Ferritins; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D005256:Leukemia Virus, Feline / Q000276:immunology*; D011817:Rabbits
D000906:Antibodies; D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D000954:Antigens, Surface; D000956:Antigens, Viral; D000939:Epitopes; D005293:Ferritins