Comparative performance of Anigen © FMD NSP Ab ELISA (Korea), NSP Priocheck® kit, liquid phase blocking ELISA kits and virus neutralisation tests in the detection of foot and mouth disease virus antibodies in animals sera from Kilifi county, Kenya

Abstract

Background: Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious viral infection of hoof cloven animals. Performance of serological tests used for FMD is faced with challenges like low test sensitivity, low tests agreement levels, in concise test cut-offs, cost of the tests and numerous FMD serotypes which may lead to misdiagnosis.

Objective: To determine the sensitivity of assays Anigen © FMD NSP Ab ELISA –Korea, NSP Priocheck® kits with Liquid Phase Blocking Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay compared with Virus neutralisation test ( the gold standard).

Design: A cross-sectional study design.

Setting: Kilifi County.

Subjects: Four hundred and twenty one cattle.

Results: The results showed that both Anigen © FMD NSP Ab ELISA (Korea), NSP Priocheck® Netherlands assays had low sensitivity but high specificity. Liquid Phase Blocking ELI SA had the highest sensitivity 100%. LPBE had a Positive Predictive Value (PPV) =100%, Anigen © FMD NSP Ab ELISA–Korea 94.44% and NSP Priocheck® Netherlands had the lowest 44.74% compared with the VNT 100%. The Cohen's kappa coefficient showed a perfect agreement level of 90%, 93%, 100 and 100% respectively.

Conclusion: This study showed no significant difference in sensitivity and both structural and non-structural proteins tests should always be used concurrently.