Differences in clinical and convalescent-phase antibodies of Rhesus monkeys infected with monkey pox, tanapox, and Yaba poxviruses.

Complement-fixing and complement-fixing inhibiting (CFI) antibodies were demonstrated in the clinical and convalescent stages, respectively, of rhesus monkeys infected with either monkey poxvirus, Tanapoxvirus, or Yaba poxvirus. Specificity of the CFI antibody was confirmed by its failure to cross-react with heterologous poxvirus antigens and by experiments demonstrating the CFI test as being antigen dependent. Serum containing CFI antibody neutralized homologous poxvirus but failed to agglutinate antigen-coated, tanned red blood cells. The application of CFI test as a seroepidemiologic tool for studies of poxvirus infection of man and simian monkeys and the biologic role of CFI antibody in pathogenesis were discussed.