Detection of Clostridium perfringens type D epsilon antitoxin in serum of goats by competitive and indirect ELISA.

Indirect and competitive ELISA techniques were developed and their ability to detect antibodies to Clostridium perfringens epsilon toxin in goat serum was compared. Different dilutions of a hyperimmune goat serum, in serum from a colostrum-deprived kid, were used as positive controls, while sera from eleven colostrum-deprived kids were used as negative controls. The epsilon toxin antibodies in the hyperimmune serum were also measured by mouse neutralisation test (MNT). The correlation coefficient between both the indirect ELISA technique and MNT was 0.99, while the same coefficient for the competitive ELISA was 0.98. Both the indirect and competitive ELISAs proved to be rapid, simple, sensitive and specific for detecting antibodies to C. perfringens epsilon toxin in serum of goats.