Comparison of different ELISA methods for the detection of antibodies against foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) type O

Diagnostic value of ELISA methods - the liquid-phase blocking ELISA (LPBE), solid phase competition ELISA (SPCE) and Ceditest FMDV type O - for the detection and quantification of FMDV type O antibodies was tested. These methods were compared using a panel of sera collected from negative (non-infected), experimentally infected, and vaccinated cattle as well as the panels of the FAO/OIE international reference sera for the purposes of international trade. The solid-phase ELISA methods (SPCE and Ceditest) had a better specificity than the LPBE (99.1 - 99.3% and 92.2%, respectively). A relative sensitivity of SPCE, Ceditest ELISA and LPBE was very high and achieved more than 99%. Variation in results obtained by triplicate testing of individual sera indicates a higher reproducibility of the ELISA than of the virus neutralization test (VNT). The OIE cut-off reference sera for FMDV antibody assays were inconclusive or negative in all the used techniques. The results of our studies showed that the solid-phase ELISA methods are more Suitable than the LPBE and VNT ones for a large scale serological testing..