Technical information > IgY purification methods

Bulk precipitation methods

• Ammonium sulfate precipitation (Schwarzkopf and Thiele 1996)
• Dextran sulfate precipitation (Jensenius 1981)
• Polyethylene glycol (PEG) precipitation, video tutorial from Journal of Visualized Experiments

A waste disposal should be considered when using the methods below

• Caprylic acid extraction (McLaren et al. 1994)
• Chloroform extraction/PEG combined extraction (Polson 1990)
• Propanol-acetone extraction (Bade and Stegemann 1984)

Commercially available kits and matrixes

These kits have different capacity to process egg yolk.

• EGGstractTM kit (Promega)
• EggcellentTM Chicken IgY Purification Kit (Pierce)
• IMSORB Anti IgY (Biotez)
• HiTrap® IgY purification (GE Healthcare)

Industrial scale methods

• Column and ultrafiltration method (Kim and Nakai 1996, 1998)

Recommended Literature

• Manual containing detailed protocols of IgY purification by different methods as well as trouble shooting. "Chicken Egg Yolk Antibodies, Production and Application" R. Schade et al.2000, Springer-Verlag, Lab Manuals, ISBN 3-540-66679-6.
• "Isolation and Purification of Chicken Egg Yolk immunoglobulins: A review" B. De Meulenaer and A. Huyghebaert 2001, Food and Agricultural Immunology, 13:275-288.
• "IgY Technology: Extraction of Chicken Antibodies from Egg Yolk by Polyethylene Glycol (PEG) Precipitation. Paulty et al. (2011). Journal of Visualized Experiments.