Analysis of the Quantity of Antiviral Antibodies from Mink Infected with Different Aleutian Disease Virus Strains

Abstract

Mink persistently infected with Aleutian disease virus (ADV) develop hypergammaglobulinemia and immune complex disease. Radiolabeled antibodies from mink infected with ADV-G, DK, Pullman and Utah I strains of ADV were reacted against all 4 ADV strains in radioimmunoassay (RIA). The amount of anti-ADV antibody in 2 equally hypergammaglobulinemic serum pools varied from 13% (anti-Pullman) to 57% (anti-Utah I). Serum pools from 2 other sources (anti-DK and anti-ADV-G), although less hypergammaglobulinemic, had 5 and 13%, respectively, indicating that 43-95% of the Ig in the sera of mink with AD was not specific antibody to ADV structural antigens. The possibility of a general polyclonal activation of the humoral immune system is being discussed. Comparison of plateau RIA binding levels for the 4 serum pools against the 4 viral antigens suggested 3 patterns of reactivity: DK and Utah I reacted similarly, but Pullman and ADV-G reacted serologically different.