EPITOPE MAPPING OF FOOT-AND-MOUTH-DISEASE VIRUS-C3 RESENDE SUBTYPE BY MEANS OF A COMPETITION TEST USING NEUTRALIZING MONOCLONAL-ANTIBODIES

C3 Resende Foot-and-mouth disease virus was investigated using 30 monoclonal antibodies obtained from two fusions 7 and 14 days respectively, after immunization of Balb/c mice. A total of 14 clones were producing neutralizing antibodies and those antibodies were purified and radioactively labelled in order to set up a competitive radioimmuno assay. It was shown that there are four groups of epitopes on the surface of C3 Resende foot-and-mouth disease virus. The first group consisted of six epitopes three of them conformationally and three of them sequentionally dependent. The second group consisted of two conformationally and one sequentionally dependent epitope. The third and the fourth site consisted of one epitope each, conformationally and sequentionally dependent respectively. The monoclonal antibody which was specific for the fourth site (sequentionally dependent epitope) enhanced the binding of some ohter monoclonal antibodies.