Facile Discovery of a Diverse Panel of Anti-Ebola Virus Antibodies by Immune Repertoire Mining.

The ongoing evolution of Ebolaviruses poses significant challenges to the development of immunodiagnostics for detecting emergent viral variants. There is a critical need for the discovery of monoclonal antibodies with distinct affinities and specificities for different Ebolaviruses. We developed an efficient technology for the rapid discovery of a plethora of antigen-specific monoclonal antibodies from immunized animals by mining the VH:VL paired antibody repertoire encoded by highly expanded B cells in the draining popliteal lymph node (PLN).

Use of avian bornavirus isolates to induce proventricular dilatation disease in conures.

Avian bornavirus (ABV) is a newly discovered member of the family Bornaviridae that has been associated with the development of a lethal neurologic syndrome in birds, termed proventricular dilatation disease (PDD). We successfully isolated and characterized ABV from the brains of 8 birds with confirmed PDD. One isolate was passed 6 times in duck embryo fibroblasts, and the infected cells were then injected intramuscularly into 2 healthy Patagonian conures (Cyanoliseus patagonis).

The diagnosis of proventricular dilatation disease: use of a Western blot assay to detect antibodies against avian Borna virus.

Avian Borna virus (ABV) has recently been shown to be the causal agent of proventricular dilatation disease (PDD) a lethal neurologic disease of captive psittacines and other birds. An immunoblot assay was used to detect the presence of antibodies against avian Borna virus in the serum of affected birds. A lysate from ABV-infected duck embryo fibroblasts served as a source of antigen.