Species: Bt
Applications: WB, ELISA, Flow, ICC/IF, IP
Host: Mouse Monoclonal
Description
The anti-bat (BT1-4F10) monoclonal antibody is a unique antibody that is able to distinguish between rabies infected versus non-infected bats in an indirect immunofluorescence assay commonly used to detect rabies but never before in bats. One of the problems with studying bat immunology is that no serologic assay exists to probe bat responses to various pathogens such as rabies, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Geomyces destructans, the etiologic agent of white nose syndrome, a condition associated with an unprecedented bat mortality event in the United States. This antibody is helping fill that gap.
Emerging pathogens, many of them viruses, continue to surprise researchers by an underappreciated source, bats. Although bats are among the most abundant, diverse and geographically dispersed orders of terrestrial mammals, typically little has been studied about the bat as a host carrying microorganisms and transmitting pathogens to other species. In fact, bats are increasingly proving to be rich reservoirs of emerging viruses and re-emerging viruses as people disrupt by encroaching natural areas exposing not only ourselves, but our domesticated animals to viruses that earlier lacked opportunities to jump species.
