Antibody response to Newcastle disease virus given by two different routes as measured by ELISA and hemagglutination-inhibition test and associated tracheal immunity.

The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and the conventional hemagglutination-inhibition (HI) test were compared for their ability to measure the primary serological response of chickens inoculated by the intranasal-intraocular (IN-IO) routes with Newcastle disease virus (NDV) and the secondary response after intratracheal (IT) challenge. In addition, these responses were compared with the temporal antibody response of chickens inoculated only once by the IT route. Both tests detected NDV-specific antibody by 7 days postinoculation (PI) in the IN-IO-inoculated group, while ELISA and the HI test detected antibody at 4 and 7 days, respectively, in the IT-inoculated group. Titers measured by each test were parallel in quantifying the antibody response, and titers rose anamnestically in response to secondary IT challenge at 21 days PI. ELISA titers remained high at 42 days PI, but the HI titers began to decline at this time. There was a good agreement (R = 0.94) between the results of the two tests throughout both primary and secondary responses. Conversely, there was little agreement between the results of the two tests after 21 days PI in the absence of secondary challenge. Antibody levels were higher when inoculation was by the primary IT route, and they persisted throughout the experiment (86 days). Ciliary activity served as a measure of tracheal immunity or infection of tracheal epithelium. It was reduced as early as 2 days PI and was nearly or completely absent by 5-6 days PI.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)