Radial immuno-diffusion and serum-neutralisation techniques for the assay of antibodies to swine vesicular disease.

Pig sera were assayed for antibodies to swine vesicular disease virus by (a) the radial immuno-diffusion technique combined with autoradiography and (by serum neutralisation tests. The former was more sensitive and was used for initial screening of sera while the latter was used to obtain estimates of titres of positive sera. In a survey of 1759 sera collected at slaughterhouses there were 14 significant titres from a total of seven premises situated in localities where the disease had been known to occur, and it was concluded that this did not indicate wither widespread undetected disease or the occurence of inapparent infection in the pig population.