Development and evaluation of a monoclonal antibody based competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the detection of rinderpest virus antibodies.

A competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay has been standardised for the detection of antibodies to rinderpest virus in sera from cattle, sheep and goats. The test uses a neutralising monoclonal antibody (MAb) directed against the haemagglutinin protein of rinderpest virus. The test is specific for rinderpest, as it failed to detect antibodies to peste des petits ruminants virus in convalescent goat sera. A 45% inhibition of the binding of the MAb to the antigen was used as the cut-off point for deciding the rinderpest status of the test samples. The specificity and sensitivity of the test and the stability of the test reagents were determined and compared to the results obtained using a commercial kit with approximately 1,200 serum samples from cattle, sheep and goats in India. The current test compared very well with the commercial kit. The test is expected to be extremely useful for sero-monitoring and sero-surveillance of rinderpest in countries which are actively pursuing a rinderpest eradication programme.