Comparison of the hemagglutination inhibition procedure and an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for detection of specific antibodies to pneumonia virus of mice in experimentally infected laboratory rats.

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and the hemagglutination inhibition (HI) test were used to evaluate the response of laboratory rats to experimental infection with pneumonia virus of mice. The ELISA procedure was more sensitive than the HI test and detected very low levels of antibodies early in the course of infection. At 5 days postinfection, ELISA detected antibody increases in five of five animals, whereas only two of five increases were detected by the HI test. At 9 days postinfection, the HI test failed to detect one titer increase measured by ELISA. Later during the course of infection, increases were detected by both tests. The ELISA procedure was, in general, more sensitive for detecting low levels of antibody than was the HI test, but was equal in sensitivity when high titers of antibody were measured.