The specificity of neutralizing antibodies to feline leukaemia viruses

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Abstract
Feline leukaemia viruses (FeLV) of subgroups A (FeLV‐A), B (FeLV‐B) and C (FeLV‐C) were examined by neutralization. The FeLV‐A isolates were monotypic. By contrast, there was antigenic variation within subgroups B and C. There was also considerable cross‐reactivity between subgroups. Thus, FeLV‐A viruses showed weak cross‐reactivity to the standard FeLV‐C isolate; four of the subgroup B viruses were identical and cross‐reacted with the standard FeLV‐C, but not with FeLV‐A or the fifth FeLV‐B, and this latter virus weakly cross‐reacted with FeLV‐A but not with the FeLV‐C; within subgroup C, one virus was indistinguishable from the standard FeLV‐C strain but the other two were very similar to FeLV‐A. Therefore, subgroup classification based on interference did not altogether correspond with neutralizing behaviour for subgroups B and C.