Development of chicken antibodies to bovine interferon alpha.

We have developed chicken polyclonal antibody to bovine interferon alpha (IFNalpha). Five hundred microg of recombinant bovine IFNalpha suspended with complete Freund's adjuvant was used in the first immunization round. A suspension of the same amount of IFNalpha and incomplete Freund's adjuvant was used for all subsequent boosters. The antibody was purified from egg yolks using polyethylene glycol precipitation. The first reactive antibody appeared several weeks after the first immunization. The antibody is specific for IFNalpha in immunoblotting, it is also useful in ELISA and immunohistochemistry. This method provides a fast, cheap and efficient alternative to development of monoclonal antibodies to conserved mammalian antigens.