Antibody responses in the wild vole, Clethrionomys rufocanus bedfordiae, naturally infected with Echinococcus multilocularis by western blotting.

Antibody responses against crude antigens and the two (Em18 and Em16) epitopes of Echinococcus multilocularis were analysed by Western blotting using sera from the wild vole, Clethrionomys rufocanus bedfordiae (Crb), which were captured in Hokkaido, Japan and found to have been naturally infected with eggs, and compared with those in patients of AHD and mice experimentally infected with protoscoleces of this parasite. Antibody responses in the wild were demonstrated most clearly with anti-Crb-IgG antiserum but more faintly with anti-rat-IgG antiserum and poorly with anti-mouse-IgG or anti-human-IgG antisera or Protein G. Although only two serum samples of the wild vole found naturally infected were analysed, antibody responses against Em18 and Em16 in these voles appeared to be similar to those in AHD patients but differed from those in mice.