Abstract
A basic experiment was carried out to find a method of treatment of contaminated sera. In it, ultraviolet irradiation and β-propiolactone (PL) administration were examined for effect on canine serum contaminated artificially with infectious canine hepatitis (ICH) virus. When applied independently to the serum to such an extent as not injurious to the serum protein contained, neither of the two inactivating factors gave necessarily satisfactory results. Simultaneous application of the two factors, however, brought about good results within a short period of time, although the amount of ultraviolet irradiation used was less than half the amount applied alone and the concentration of PL one-trird to one-half that employed alone previously. When administered at such concentrations as these, PL exercised little influence upon neutralizing antibody in the serum and gave rise to no noticeable changes in the animal administered.
