Development of an ELISA for detection of antibodies to avian reovirus in chickens.

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using the expressed sigmaC and sigmaB proteins which induce neutralizing antibodies as the coating antigen (sigmaC-sigmaB-ELISA) for the detection of antibodies to avian reovirus in chickens was developed and compared with serum neutralization and conventional ELISA tests. These assays were used to examine the sera from chickens vaccinated experimentally and farm chickens. The correlation rate between serum neutralization and a sigmaC-sigmaB-ELISA was 100% (156/156), and that between serum neutralization and conventional ELISA was 89.1% (139/156). The results revealed that preparation of an ELISA by using sigmaC and sigmaB of ARV as the coating antigen in detecting the field chicken sera in comparison with the conventional ELISA gave a titer more correlated to the serum neutralization test. The sigmaC-sigmaB-ELISA showed a higher correlation with the serum neutralization-positive and -negative sera than that obtained with conventional ELISA. This combination antigen may thus be the best suited for preparing an ELISA for improving the determination of the immune status of chicken flocks or for detection of chicken infections with avian reovirus.