Production and characterization of antibodies against nivalenol tetraacetate

Antibody against nivalenol tetraacetate (tetra-Ac-NIV) was prepared by immunization of rabbits with triacetyl-15-pimelate-NIV conjugated to bovine serum albumin. By using tritiated tetra-Ac-NIV as the test ligand, antibody titers were demonstrated as early as 4 weeks after immunization. Useful antibody for radioimmunoassay (RIA) of tetra-Ac-NIV was obtained 7 weeks after immunization, with one booster injection. Results of competitive RIA revealed that the antibody was most specific to tetra-Ac-NIV. The relative cross-reactivity of this antibody with tetra-Ac-NIV, deoxynivalenol triacetate, and neosolaniol triacetate was found to be 100, 2.2, and less than 1, respectively. Practically no cross-reaction was found with deoxynivalenol, fusarenon X, and NIV. The detection limit for tetra-Ac-NIV by RIA was about 5.0 ng/ml (0.5 ng per assay). The use of this antibody for quantitation of NIV in cereals after acetylation of sample extracts is proposed.