Comparison of competitive and indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays for detection of bluetongue virus antibodies in serum and whole blood.

An indirect (I) enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and a competitive (C) ELISA, using a group-specific monoclonal antibody against bluetongue virus (BTV), are described for the detection of antibodies to BTV in cattle and sheep sera. The performance of these assays in detecting anti-BTV antibody in sequential serum samples and eluates from whole blood (WB) dried on filter paper from three calves and four sheep experimentally infected with type 10 BTV was evaluated. The C-ELISA was superior to the I-ELISA in the detection of anti-BTV antibody in the sera and WB samples from both cattle and sheep early after infection with BTV. BTV antibodies were demonstrable by C-ELISA in all the bovine and ovine sera and WB eluates by 9 days postinfection; whereas the I-ELISA results for sheep sera and WB eluates were similar, anti-BTV antibody was not detected in bovine serum and WB eluates until 26 and 14 days postinfection, respectively. While both ELISAs proved reliable, under the present test conditions involving detection of early postinfection reactions of experimentally infected animals, the C-ELISA was always as sensitive or more sensitive than the standard agar gel immunodiffusion test, the modified complement fixation test, and the plaque neutralization tests in the detection of anti-BTV antibodies. Unlike observations with the immunodiffusion test, no reaction was seen between BTV antigen and bovine epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus antiserum in either ELISA. The results suggest that either ELISA may be suitable for routine diagnostic testing and may have the potential to replace other tests for detection of anti-BTV group-specific antibodies and that the C-ELISA may have the most potential.