Etiological agent for porcine enteritis

摘要

A novel intracellular organism isolated from enterocytes of pigs affected by Porcine Proliferative Enteritis (PPE) may be cultured by passage in a permissive host cell and may be purified from lysates of such cells. On inoculation, the organism of the present invention causes PPE-like symptoms in pigs. The infectious PPE-causing agent may be used to develop a whole organism bacterin or subunit preparation effective to prevent PPE. In addition, the cultured isolate may be used to prepare a battery of therapeutic and diagnostic monoclonal antibodies directed against the PPE-causing agent. Further, by isolating the genetic material from the agent, various useful fusion proteins may be prepared and the genetic makeup of the organism may be determined.