title: Antigenic change in feline calicivirus during persistent infection.
abstract: To determine if antigenic variation occurred during persistent infection of cats with feline caliciviruses (FCV), nine persistent (progeny) isolates from nine different carrier cats were compared antigenically to the original infecting parent strain, FCV 255, by two-way cross-neutralization tests with rabbit antisera. Five of the nine progeny viruses isolated 35 to 169 days after initial infection were antigenically different from the parent strain. These five isolates represented four distinct antigenic phenotypes. The emergence of four distinctly different antigenic variants from a single parent strain indicates that FCV, like many other RNA viruses, exhibits considerable antigenic heterogeneity during replication in its natural host, and supports the hypothesis that antigenic variation contributes to chronic FCV infection.
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Immunology, Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph.
authors.forename: R P
authors.initials: RP
authors.lastname: Johnson
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000940:Antigenic Variation; D000956:Antigens, Viral / Q000032:analysis* / Q000276:immunology; D002139:Caliciviridae / Q000276:immunology*; D017250:Caliciviridae Infections / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D002371:Cat Diseases / Q000382:microbiology*; D002415:Cats; D007106:Immune Sera / Q000276:immunology; D009500:Neutralization Tests
chemical_list: D000956:Antigens, Viral; D007106:Immune Sera