Rachel,
You wrote, "I got the impression from the original post that the cord blood 
was virus positive, not antibody positive...."

 According to the National Cord Blood Program in the NY Blood Center they 
test for "antibodies" to hiv and htlv, etc.
Infectious disease testing of both the mother's blood and cord blood is 
performed for antibody to HIV-1 and 2, HTLV-1 and 2, HCV, HBV (anti-HBc) and 
syphilis and for the hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg) by Blood Systems 
Laboratory (BSL), Tempe, AZ.

http://www.nationalcordbloodprogram.com/work/process_test_storage.html

I would think that throughout the USA, that the standard test on cord blood 
would be antibody testing.  Cultures are expensive and take too much time.  

Valerie W. McClain

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