[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 9, Volume 1]
[Revised as of January 1, 2004]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 9CFR113.31]

[Page 607-608]
 
                  TITLE 9--ANIMALS AND ANIMAL PRODUCTS
 
  CHAPTER I--ANIMAL AND PLANT HEALTH INSPECTION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF 
                               AGRICULTURE
 
PART 113_STANDARD REQUIREMENTS--Table of Contents
 
Sec.  113.31  Detection of avian lymphoid leukosis.

    The complement-fixation test for detection of avian lymphoid 
leukosis provided in this section shall be conducted on all biological 
products containing virus which has been propagated in substrates of 
chicken origin: Provided, An inactivated viral product shall be exempt 
from this requirement if the licensee can demonstrate to Animal and 
Plant Health Inspection Service that the agent used to inactivate the 
vaccine virus would also inactivate lymphoid leukosis virus.
    (a) Propagation of contaminating lymphoid leukosis viruses, if 
present, shall be done in chick embryo cell cultures.
    (1) Each vaccine virus, cytopathic to chick embryo fibroblast cells, 
shall be effectively neutralized, inactivated, or separated so that 
minimal amounts of lymphoid leukosis virus can be propagated on cell 
culture during the 21-day growth period. If a vaccine virus cannot be 
effectively neutralized, inactivated, or separated, a sample of another 
vaccine prepared the same week from material harvested from each source 
flock (or other sampling procedure acceptable to Animal and Plant Health 
Inspection Service) used for the preparation of the questionable vaccine 
virus that cannot be neutralized, inactivated, or separated shall be 
tested each week during the preparation of such questionable vaccine.
    (2) When cell cultures are tested, 5 ml of the final cell suspension 
as prepared for seeding of production cell cultures shall be used as 
inoculum. When vaccines are tested, the equivalent of 200 doses of 
Newcastle disease vaccine or 500 doses of other vaccines for use in 
poultry, or one dose of vaccine for use in other animals shall be used 
as inoculum. Control cultures shall be

[[Page 608]]

prepared from the same cell suspension as the cultures for testing the 
vaccine.
    (3) Uninoculated chick embryo fibroblast cell cultures shall act as 
negative controls. One set of chick fibroblast cultures inoculated with 
subgroup A virus and another set inoculated with subgroup B virus shall 
act as positive controls, A and B respectively.
    (4) The cell cultures shall be propagated at 35-37 [deg]C for at 
least 21 days. They shall be passed when necessary to maintain viability 
and samples harvested from each passage shall be tested for group 
specific antigen.
    (b) The microtiter complement-fixation test shall be performed using 
either the 50 percent or the 100 percent hemolytic end point technique 
to determine complement unitage. Five 50 percent hemolytic units or two 
100 percent hemolytic units of complement shall be used for each test.
    (1) All test materials, including positive and negative controls, 
shall be stored at -60 [deg]C or colder until used in the test. Before 
use, each sample shall be thawed and frozen three times to disrupt 
intact cells and release the group specific antigen.
    (2) The antiserum used in the microtiter complement-fixation test 
shall be a standard reagent supplied or approved by the Animal and Plant 
Health Inspection Service. Four units of antiserum shall be used for 
each test.
    (3) Presence of complement-fixing activity in the harvested samples 
(from passages) at the 1:4 or higher dilution, in the absence of 
anticomplementary activity, shall be considered a positive test unless 
the activity can definitely be established to be caused by something 
other than lymphoid leukosis virus, subgroups A and/or B. Activity at 
the 1:2 dilution shall be considered suspicious and the sample further 
subcultured to determine presence or absence of the group specific 
antigen.
    (4) Biological products or primary cells which are found 
contaminated with lymphoid leukosis viruses are unsatisfactory. Source 
flocks from which contaminated material was obtained are also 
unsatisfactory.

[38 FR 29888, Oct. 30, 1973, as amended at 38 FR 32917, Nov. 29, 1973; 
39 FR 21042, June 18, 1974; 56 FR 66784, Dec. 26, 1991]