Characterization of monoclonal antibodies to the hemagglutinin-esterase glycoprotein of a bovine coronavirus associated with winter dysentery and cross-reactivity to field isolates.

Seven hybridoma cell lines producing monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) to the hemagglutinin-esterase (HE) glycoprotein of bovine coronavirus (BCV) were obtained from BALB/c mice that were immunized with an enriched peplomeric fraction of the winter dysentery (WD)-associated strain BCQ.2590. The specificities of these MAbs to either the dimeric (140-kDa) or the monomeric (65-kDa) form of the HE glycoprotein were determined by Western immunoblotting experiments with purified virus and immunoprecipitation tests with [35S]methionine-labelled infected cell extracts. Four of these anti-HE MAbs inhibited the hemagglutinating activity of the virus and three weakly neutralized its infectivity in vitro. In addition, competition binding assays allowed for the definition of two independent antigenic domains (domains A and D) and two overlapping antigenic domains (domains B and C) for the HE glycoprotein of the WD-associated strain; epitopes located within antigenic domain A were not associated with hemagglutination inhibition (HAI) and virus neutralization activities. In HAI tests, the four anti-HA MAbs defined two distinct antigenic subgroups among 24 BCV field isolates that have been associated with either typical outbreaks of WD or neonatal calf diarrhea (NCD) in Quebec dairy herds from 1986 to 1996. The Quebec WD-associated strains of BCV, as well as some of the NCD-associated strains isolated since 1991, fell within a subgroup distinct from that of the prototype Mebus strain.