A significant proportion of infected mink of non-Aleutian genotype naturally resists progression to immune complex disease. The nature of the AD resistance is presumably genetic. While hypergammaglubulinemia can be insensitively detected by an iodine test, more sensitive diagnosis of hyper-γ globulinemia and of other serum protein parameters associated with an immune-complex disease is currently cost prohibitive, time consuming, and laborious. Thus, practical, cost effective, sensitive, and high throughput tests for in vivo markers of disease vs. health in AD virus infected animals are currently not available. Such markers could have potential practical use in selection of AD virus infected animals for disease resistance. In this study, initially, parameters for serum protein MALDI-TOF serum analysis were established, and subsequently serum proteins of infected mink (CIEP positive) and mink from ADV uninfected farms were profiled by MALDI-TOF spectrometry. We determined the albumin-γ globulin (A/γ G) ratios and albumin-C reactive protein (A/C) ratios associated with health and disease, and furthermore we identified a 76Kda protein, associated exclusively with disease, i.e. with pathological A/ γ G ratio. We concluded that MALDI-TOF profiles of CIPE positive animals provide practical and cost effective tool for selection of breeders for AD resistant phenotype, which could in turn facilitate ‘on farm resistance breeding programs’.

Detection/removal control method of Aleutian disease by CIEP detection of ADV-antibody and farm or barn depopulation/repopulation, have been the recommended approaches of AD control since mid 1970s. The detection/removal was, at least under common N. American husbandry conditions, unsuccessful in controlling AD in a sustainable manner. Recently, attention was turned towards virus detection by PCR, and its use for AD eradication by removal of positive individual animals. In view of the common failures of CIEP to facilitate AD eradication, we were skeptical about premature acceptance of PCR-detection/removal, as the recommended control method. The frequent failures of CIEP test/removal were often blamed on breaches of bio-security. However, we believed that this method has been based on fundamentally wrong premise that the virus is primarily harbored by the infected animals. In reality, this sturdy parvovirus is harbored primarily in the contaminated environment through feces, saliva, urine, whelping, as well as through blood during bleeding for testing. While the use of both CIEP and PCR for monitoring of farms free of the virus remains certainly a valid approach, the data obtained in this study indicate that detection/removal by neither of the methods could facilitate real and lasting freedom from the virus, under the conditions of the study.

Detection/removal control method of Aleutian disease by CIEP detection of ADV-antibody and farm or barn depopulation/repopulation, have been the recommended approaches of AD control since mid 1970s. The detection/removal was, at least under common N. American husbandry conditions, unsuccessful in controlling AD in a sustainable manner. Recently, attention was turned towards virus detection by PCR, and its use for AD eradication by removal of positive individual animals. In view of the common failures of CIEP to facilitate AD eradication, we were skeptical about premature acceptance of PCR-detection/removal, as the recommended control method. The frequent failures of CIEP test/removal were often blamed on breaches of bio-security. However, we believed that this method has been based on fundamentally wrong premise that the virus is primarily harbored by the infected animals. In reality, this sturdy parvovirus is harbored primarily in the contaminated environment through feces, saliva, urine, whelping, as well as through blood during bleeding for testing. While the use of both CIEP and PCR for monitoring of farms free of the virus remains certainly a valid approach, the data obtained in this study indicate that detection/removal by neither of the methods could facilitate real and lasting freedom from the virus, under the conditions of the study.

A significant proportion of infected mink of non-Aleutian genotype naturally resists progression to immune complex disease. The nature of the AD resistance is presumably genetic. While hyper-gammaglubulinemia can be insensitively detected by an iodine test, more sensitive diagnosis of hyper-γ globulinemia and of other serum protein parameters associated with an immune-complex disease is currently cost prohibitive, time consuming, and laborious. Thus, practical, cost effective, sensitive, and high throughput tests for in vivo markers of disease vs. health in AD virus infected animals are currently not available. Such markers could have potential practical use in selection of AD virus infected animals for disease resistance. In this study, initially, parameters for serum protein MALDI-TOF serum analysis were established, and subsequently serum proteins of infected mink (CIEP positive) and mink from ADV uninfected farms were profiled by MALDI-TOF spectrometry. We determined the albumin-γ globulin (A/γ G) ratios and albumin-C reactive protein (A/C) ratios associated with health and disease, and furthermore we identified a 76Kda protein, associated exclusively with disease, i.e. with pathological A/ γ G ratio. We concluded that MALDI-TOF profiles of CIPE positive animals provide practical and cost effective tool for selection of breeders for AD resistant phenotype, which could in turn facilitate ‘on farm resistance breeding programs’