Specifics of the use of bovine blood serum in the technology of cultivation of avian metapneumovirus

Abstract

When obtaining virus-containing material of avian metapneumovirus infection (MPVI) on Vero cell culture, special attention should be paid to the composition of growth and supporting nutrient media, since their components directly affect the proliferation and viability of the cell culture, and hence the quality of the resulting target product.

For Vero cell culture, the main nutrient medium is the DMEM medium, into which various additional components are added. It is customary to add up to 10% of fetal bovine serum (FBS) to the growth medium, as for the supporting medium, the question of the need to add blood serum of cattle (cattle) to it does not have an unambiguous solution. Since the financial costs of nutrient media have a significant impact on the cost of the final product, it is necessary to analyze the economic feasibility of using one or another component, in connection with which we have studied the role of blood serum of cattle (FBS and blood serum of adult cattle) in the technology of obtaining the MPVI virus.

As a result of the conducted studies, it was revealed that in the growth medium for Vero cell culture, it is possible to replace FBS with blood serum of adult cattle with no more than two consecutive passages. However, if the Vero cell culture is replanted more than twice, then such a replacement is impossible, since already in the 3-4 passage there are signs of a decrease in the rate of cell division and cell culture degeneration. A large number of voids and rounded cells are noted in the cell layer, which makes it impossible to use it further for the cultivation of viruses or further replanting.

It was also found that when cultivating the MPVI virus on a Vero cell culture, the DMEM maintenance medium containing 2% of cattle blood serum is optimal for use, since it ensures the production of virus-containing material with higher infectious activity compared to the DMEM medium, which does not contain or contains 10% of cattle blood serum at all.