A monoclonal blocking ELISA to detect chicken anaemia virus antibodies in Nigerian poultry

Abstract

To provide a rapid, easy and economical method for detecting antibodies to chicken anaemia virus (CAV) especially in large numbers of chicken sera, we established a monoclonal blocking enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (MBE). A monoclonal antibody (MAb), 2A9, directed against the 52 kDa protein of the Cuxhaven-1 CAV strain was used. The blocking ELISA depends on the selective inhibition of the binding of MAb 2A9 to solid-phase antigen by CAV-specific antibodies present in convalescent chicken serum. Performance evaluation of the MBE using 417 sera from Nigerian and Northern Ireland commercial chicken flocks revealed a 99.3 % agreement between the MBE and the IDEXX ELISA (IDE) while an 86.1 % agreement was obtained between the MBE and the indirect ELISA using 310 chicken sera. An epidemiological survey for CAV antibodies using the developed MBE on 641 sera from chicken flocks in southwest Nigeria revealed 59.0% prevalence. The MBE was found to have advantages in terms of cost, time and labor compared with the IDE and the indirect ELISA.