Production and evaluation of A monoclonal antibody to Clostridium perfringens type D epsilon toxin

¹EL-Enbaawy, M. I., ²Abdalla Y. A., ²Hussein, A. Z., ²Roukaya M. Osman and ¹Selim, S. A.

¹Microbiology Department, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Cairo University and ²Bacteriology Department, Veterinary Sera & Vaccines Research Institute, Abbasia, Cairo, Egypt.

A monoclonal antibody (mAb) against C. perfringens type D epsilon toxin was produced in hybridoma tissue culture supernatant and in BALB/C mice ascitic fluid. The mAb reacted with single band of the purified epsilon toxin and efficiently neutralized the lethal effect of epsilon toxin in mice. A competitive ELISA (C-ELISA) was developed using this mAb and used to evaluate C. perfringens type D vaccines. Individual serum samples from vaccinated rabbits were tested using C-ELISA and mouse neutralization test (MNT). the mAb based C-ELISA correlated with the conventional MNT for estimation of antitoxin level.