Prevalencia de anticuerpos contra el virus de la encefalomielitis murina de Theiler en colonias de ratones de Argentina

This study analyzes the prevalence to antibodies of Theiler’s murine encephalomyelitis virus (TMEV) in mice colonies of Argentina. A first study performed by indirect enzymelinked immunosorbent assay (iELISA) and indirect fluorescent antibody test (IFI) on 352 sera determined a prevalence of antibodies of 73% and 67% respectively with sensitivity of 100% and 76,2% respectively and 0,8 of kappa value. In a second assay performed only by iELISA on 558 sera from 53 colonies a seroprevalence of 72,6% varying between 0% to 100% was obtained. The higher values were found in those animal facilities without barrier systems. Theiler virus infections in mouse colonies could interfere with experimental results; this may be due to a lack of barriers, and poor staff training and colony management in the facility.