Characterization of monoclonal antibodies against avian reovirus strain S1133

Monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) were produced against a vaccinal S1133 strain of avian reovirus. Characterization of six MAbs in Western blotting, radioimmunoprecipitation and gold immunoelectron microscopy revealed that the MAbs were specific to the outer capsid proteins, mu2/mu2c, sigma2 and sigma3. Two of three MAbs, directed against sigma2 protein, neutralized the virus infectivity in a broadly specific manner, whereas the third had no neutralizing activity. The only MAb which reacted with sigma3 protein showed a type-specific neutralizing activity. Two MAbs recognizing the mu2/mu2c proteins failed to neutralize the virus infectivity.