Demonstration of a marek's disease virus‐specific antigen in tumour lesions of chickens with marek's disease using monoclonal antibody against a virus phosphorylated protein

Abstract

By use of monoclonal antibody against a Marek's disease virus (MDV) serotype 1‐specific phosphorylated protein, MDV antigen‐positive cells were demonstrated in tumour lesions of various visceral organs of chickens with Marek's disease. However, these tumour lesions did not appear to have the MDV glycoproteins gA and gB, which are considered to be late gene products of the virus genome gA and gB as well as the phosphorylated protein were detected in the feather follicle epithelium, which is a permissive site for MDV replication.