Skip to main content
ARS Home » Midwest Area » Ames, Iowa » National Animal Disease Center » Virus and Prion Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #300096

Title: Microneutralization assay for swine influenza virus in swine serum

Author
item Kitikoon, Pravina
item Baker, Amy

Submitted to: Methods in Molecular Biology
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/10/2014
Publication Date: 6/30/2014
Citation: Kitikoon, P., Vincent, A.L. 2014. Microneutralization assay for swine influenza virus in swine serum. In: Spackman, E., editor. Methods in Molecular Biology, Animal Influenza Virus. 2nd edition. New York, NY: Springer. p. 325-335.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The microneutralization (MN) assay is a modification of the serum virus neutralization assay and is a serological test to detect the presence of functional systemic antibodies that prevent infectivity of virus. When infectious virus is mixed with serum antibody, the virus infectivity can be "neutralized" if the antibodies bind to blocking epitopes on the virus. The neutralization effect can be demonstrated by inoculation of susceptible cells or organisms with the antibody-virus mixture, such as cells in culture, embryonated eggs or susceptible hosts. The MN assay described here has a read out based on cell culture in a microtiter plate format and a color change system detected by an automated plate reader. The test is performed with a constant amount of virus and serial dilutions of serum samples to an end point where virus neutralization is not detected. The neutralizing antibody titer is thus the reciprocal number of the last dilution of serum with neutralizing activity. The MN assay can be used to detect antibody from pigs with natural exposure or vaccination and can potentially be used to predict cross-protection between strains of IAV.