Comparison of Agar Gel Immunodiffusion Test, Enzyme‐linked Immunosorbent Assay and Western Blotting for the Detection of BLV Antibodies

Abstract

An indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the diagnosis of bovine leukaemia virus (BLV) infection was developed and compared with the agar gel immunodiffusion test (ACID?. Western blotting (WB) was used as confirmatory test. ELISA and AGIDT had specificities that were comparable with that of WB, however, ELSA showed a higher sensitivity than AGIDT. The ELISA was useful for screening a large number of samples, whereas WB was important for detecting the antibody response against the individual BLV-proteins. Different types of positive serological reactions were discerned in m, that correlated with reactions of sera in AGIDT and ELISA. The most important antigen in WB and E~S Awas the BLV protein p24, whereas the BLV glycoproteins gp51 and gp30 were o f special importance in AGIDT. The relevance of repeatedly testing the antibody response in BLV-infected herds for control 2nd eradication programmes using assays with higher sensiuvity than AGIDT was demonstrated.

La leucosis enzoótica bovina: un asesino silencioso

“…Es de suma importancia utilizar pruebas de laboratorio confiables y con alta sensibilidad ya que los programas de control y erradicación del virus de la leucosis se van a basar en la detección de los animales seropositivos, para la toma de decisiones de eliminación, segregación o manejo de animales debido a que el diagnóstico de los animales infectados o con linfocitosis persistente solamente se puede realizar en el laboratorio (Dolz y Moreno, 1999;Dolz et al, 2015) Los análisis oficiales y aprobados por la Organización Mundial de Sanidad Animal comúnmente utilizados para detectar anticuerpos de LEB incluyen ensayo enzimático ligado inmunoabsorbente (ELISA) y la inmunodifusión en gel de agar (IGDA) (Dolz y Moreno, 1999;Toma et al, 1990;Gutiérrez et al, 2009;Andreolla et al, 2018). Es importante mencionar que, a pesar de sus falencias, la técnica ELISA ha sido considerada como la más adecuada para el diagnóstico y programas de control, especialmente porque presenta mayor sensibilidad que el IGDA que por su baja sensibilidad podría dejar pasar infecciones en hatos clínicamente normales y a pesar de haber sido por mucho tiempo el análisis utilizado por su simplicidad y confiabilidad (Dolz et al, 2015).…”

Triple Immunochromatographic System for Simultaneous Serodiagnosis of Bovine Brucellosis, Tuberculosis, and Leukemia

“…Currently, however, ELISA [17] and the fluorescence polarization assay [18] are successfully used to detect specific antibodies against M. bovis. Serodiagnostics of bovine leukemia virus also include modifications of ELISA [19,20], immunodiffusion in agar gel, and immunoblotting [21].…”

Evaluation of a Voluntary Control Program for the Detection of Bovine Leukemia Virus Antibodies Based on Agar Gel Immunodiffusion Test in Dairy Farms in Costa Rica

“…Although AGIDT is a simple and reliable procedure, it has a relatively low sensitivity, which might favor the occurrence of low-titer BLV infections in clinically normal herds [5]- [7]. This is of remarkable importance in herds which had been tested repeatedly for some time with AGIDT [8] [9]. Previous results showed that control based solely on low sensitivity precipitation assays might complicate the epidemiology of BLV by selecting animals which, although infected, do not produce detectable antibodies in AGIDT.…”