DEVELOPMENT OF BLOCKING ENZYME-LINKED IMMUNOSORBENT ASSAY FOR DETECTION OF CAPRINE HERPESVIRUS 1 ANTIBODIES IN BULGARIA

Caprine herpesvirus 1 (CpHV-1) is one of the pathogens causing economic losses in goat farming. During the last few years there were growing incidences of CpHV-1 infection in goat farms in Bulgaria. The aim of our study was to develop a specific and sensitive blocking enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (bELISA) for detection of antibodies against CpHV-1. A total of 152 goat blood sera originating from CpHV-1-free and CpHV-1-infected herds were tested by the gold standard virus neutralization test (VNT) and the bELISA. Two different antigens, obtained by ultracentrifugation and by treatment with Polyethylene glycol (PEG) 6000, were applied. The specificity and sensitivity between the developed blocking ELISA and the VNT, were defined by ROC analysis, separately for the two antigens. Comparison of the developed test showed very good agreement with the gold standard using both Ag1 and Ag2 antigens (kappa = 0.803 and kappa = 0.833, respectively) and very high specificity and sensitivity for detection of CpHV-1 antibodies in blood sera. The newly developed blocking ELISA is simple, convenient and cheap test which could be alternative to the VNT in the practice.