Adaptations of a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays for the detection of antibodies to influenza a virus in horse sera for use in wild aquatic birds.

We applied a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the detection of antibodies for influenza A in equine sera to their detection in sera from wild aquatic birds. Suboptimal results were obtained for the optical density (OD) of the monoclonal antibody (MAb) control and reproducibility between duplicate analyses in the initial assessment. It was therefore necessary to modify the assay to deliver increased reliability and reproducibility while maintaining adequate sensitivity. We optimized reagent concentrations to obtain optimal OD values (close to 2) for the monoclonal antibody control and used 2, 2'-Azino-bis: 3-Benzthiazoline-6-Sulphonic Acid as an alternative chromogen to potentially reduce variability in duplicate analyses. The original assay was compared with the optimized versions, with and without post coating, for the detection of avian influenza viral antibodies in 240 sera obtained from wild plumed whistling ducks. A separate analytical sensitivity study on diluted positive field sera of plumed whistling ducks and a test of antigen stability after post coating were also performed. Some quantitative differences were detected between the original and modified assays. The original assay recorded higher percentage inhibition results which were potentially indicative of increased sensitivity. However, when reagent concentrations were increased in the original assay to the same levels as used in the modified versions, there were no quantitative differences for practical purposes. The original assay produced a median (OD) value of 0.81 for the (MAb) controls that is at the limit of acceptability. By contrast, the modified assays always produced acceptable optical density values for MAb controls. Our overall results indicated the modified assays were potentially more reliable (OD values close to 2), and of adequate sensitivity compared to the original assay in the detection of avian influenza viral antibodies in wild bird sera. Although further optimization of antigen and MAb concentrations should also be considered to increase the sensitivity of a modified assay, while maintaining acceptable optical density values for the MAb control. Post coating had a minimal quantitative effect on the results and stabilized the plates for 214 days. We therefore recommend the incorporation of post coating.