Evaluation of hyperimmune sera against goat pox viral antigens.

Laboratory diagnosis of goat poxvirus (GPV) requires suitable diagnostic reagents (sera and antigens). GPV-infected scab suspension has been used as antigen for production of hyperimmune sera (HIS) by several workers (Pandey and Singh, 1972; Tantawi et al., 1980; Sharma et al., 1988). This antiserum sometimes reacts non-specifically in routine laboratory tests such as the agar gel precipitation test (AGPT) and counter-immunoelectrophoresis (CIE) (Sharma et al., 1988). Production of specific goat pox antiserum involves its adsorption with healthy goat-skin triturate. The present work evaluated various HIS raised against different antigens of GPV in order to develop an antiserum for laboratory diagnosis of goat pox infections without any non-specificity.