Good rabbits or bad rabbits

[Terry Grissell]

> 
> I am a PhD student at the University of Queensland, and my project involves 
> raising antibodies against a particular protein. 
> 
> I started off injecting two rabbits with Freunds adjuvant mixed 
> >snip>>

The only good rabbit is a dead rabbit (rock on Mr.Calicivirus!)

Seriously, I have raised antibodies to a couple of viral proteins in
rabbits. I don't know the answer your exact problem, but I'll give you the
standard method I used which worked fine.

Primary inoculation: 1:1 emulsion of 100-200ug purified protein : COMPLETE
Freund's ( inject 5 sites intradermally dorsal surface with 0.2ml per site
AND 4 sites intramuscularly rear thigh muscles with 0.5ml per site)

Booster inoculations: 1:1 emulsion of 100-200ug purified protein :
INCOMPLETE Freund's (inject 4 sites intramuscularly rear thigh muscles with
0.5ml per site)

A couple of notes: (i) booster injection 3 weeks after primary injection,
then every two weeks thereafter as necessary (ii) some bunnies did not
respond no matter what I tried, about 1 out of every 4. If no antibodies
after 2 boosters, give up and try another rabbit

Hope this helps.
Cheers, Terry

-- 
Now, if only we had an Eskimo phrase book .... ah! Here's one!
(The Goodies)