Humoral Immunity to Myxoma Virus in Wild Rabbits.

Abstract

An enzyme linked immunosorbent assay was developed to detect antibody to myxoma virus in serum of rabbits. In ten laboratory rabbits vaccinated with attenuated myxoma virus, antibody levels were seen to increase for four weeks, after which they declined. Antibody levels in a large number of wild rabbits collected at Cape Naturaliste area, Western Australia, in 1974 were high, following an outbreak of myxomatosis. When serum samples from the same population were tested in 1978, levels of antibody were low. Using gel filtration chromatography, the main anti-myxoma virus antibody activity seemed to be in the IgG fraction, although IgM and IgA were also present.