Production of interferons by bovine and ovine cell lines infected with Theileria annulata or Theileria parva.

Three bovine cell lines and four ovine cell lines infected with Theileria parva or Theileria annulata were examined for the production of interferon (IFN). Biologically active IFN was detected in the tissue culture supernatants of four of the cell lines. Only one, a bovine cell line infected with T. parva, produced IFN-gamma as measured by specific neutralization with a monoclonal antibody to bovine IFN-gamma. This observation was confirmed by analysing RNA from the cell lines on Northern blots using an IFN-gamma cDNA probe. The other three cell lines which produced IFN were infected with T. annulata. The IFN produced by those lines was not IFN-gamma.