Development of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the detection of antibody to epizootic hemorrhagic disease of deer virus.

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay has been developed to detect antibodies to epizootic hemorrhagic disease of deer virus (EHDV). The assay incorporates a monoclonal antibody to EHDV serotype 2 (EHDV-2) that demonstrates specificity for the viral structural protein, VP7. The assay was evaluated with sequential sera collected from cattle experimentally infected with EHDV serotype 1 (EHDV-1) and EHDV-2, as well as the four serotypes of bluetongue virus (BTV), BTV-10, BTV-11, BTV-13, and BTV-17, that currently circulate in the US. A competitive and a blocking format as well as the use of antigen produced from both EHDV-1- and EHDV-2-infected cells were evaluated. The assay was able to detect specific antibody as early as 7 days after infection and could differentiate animals experimentally infected with EHDV from those experimentally infected with BTV. The diagnostic potential of this assay was demonstrated with field-collected serum samples from cattle, deer, and buffalo.