Malignant catarrhal fever virus. Characterization of a United States isolate and development of diagnostic assays

Malignant catarrhal fever (MCF) is a severe lymphoproliferative disease of certain domestic and wild ruminants. Two distinct but closely related viruses cause clinically indistinguishable syndromes in susceptible ruminant species: wildebeest-associated MCF virus (WA-MCFV) and sheep-associated MCF virus (SA-MCFV). Neither the pathogenesis nor the epidemiology of SA-MCF is understood, primarily because of a lack of adequate detection methods for the etiologic agent or antibody against that agent. Work designed to develop these tests has been under way in our laboratory. To obtain basic information about the virus, the in vitro growth properties of a US isolate of MCF virus were studied and its major viral proteins identified and characterized by a panel of monoclonal antibodies generated against the isolate. A monoclonal antibody to a broadly conserved epitope of MCF virus was identified, and a competitive-inhibition ELISA (CI-ELISA) was developed for detection of anti-MCF antibody in sheep and other ruminants. The monoclonal antibody (15-A) reacted with an epitope located on a glycoprotein complex, which was present in all isolates of MCF virus examined. Antibody from a wide variety of ruminants infected with MCF virus of both sheep and wildebeest origin competed with the monoclonal antibody 15-A for the epitope, which was not present on 14 other common ruminant viruses. The assay detected antibody in inapparently infected sheep, and in cattle, deer, and bison with clinical MCF. A PCR assay for DNA of the sheep-associated virus was developed, based on previously reported primers. Comparative studies demonstrated that the CI-ELISA was specific for MCFV antibody and that the PCR was more reliable for diagnosis of clinical MCF.