Detection of infectious bronchitis virus antigen from experimentally infected chickens by indirect immunofluorescent assay with monoclonal antibody.

Infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) was detected by indirect immunofluorescent assay with a monoclonal antibody (MAb-IFA). The monoclonal antibody was specific for the nucleocapsid protein of IBV strain M41. The MAb-IFA clearly detected IBV with high specificity in infected chicken kidney cells. The assay furthermore detected IBV in tracheal smears and sliced tracheas from experimentally infected chickens. The positive reaction was found to be longer than that in the virus recovery test. These results indicate that MAb-IFA is a useful method for the detection of IBV from chickens suspected to have infectious bronchitis.