Abstract

High titer polyclonal antibodies for serological diagnostic purposes were locally produced to forty isolates of rice yellow mottle virus (RYMV) collected from  different  sites across four West African countries (18- from Cote d’Ivoire, 2- from Burkina Faso, 5- from Mali and 15- from Niger Republic). This was achieved by immunizing rabbits with purified viral preparations. The primary goal was to obtain high titer, high affinity antisera for use in experiments and diagnostic tests for all WARDA collaborating partners (NARS). RYMV from each isolate was purified from infected rice leaves collected from each location. For quarantine and bio-safety reasons, none of the foreign isolate was used as inoculum for multiplication of virus in the screen houses in Bouaké, Côte d’Ivoire; instead, sufficient leaf samples were collected from different locations, transported and kept in the freezer until use for virus purification. Polyclonal   antibodies were produced using the purified virus preparations with combination of complete and incomplete Freund’s adjuvant. These high titer serological reagents, kept at the Africa Rice Center (WARDA), are available for use by all WARDA collaborators (National Agricultural Research laboratories) for identifying, classifying and typing of RYMV isolates.

Key words: Polyclonal antibody, rice yellow mottle virus (RYMV), agro-ecological zones of West Africa.