COMPARISON OF AN ANTIGEN CAPTURE ENZYME-LINKED ASSAY WITH REVERSE TRANSCRIPTION - POLYMERASE CHAIN-REACTION AND CELL-CULTURE IMMUNOPEROXIDASE TESTS FOR THE DIAGNOSIS OF RUMINANT PESTIVIRUS INFECTIONS

A study to compare the merits of three different tests for the diagnos is of ruminant pestivirus infections was carried out. Sensitivity stud ies using reference strains of bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) and buffy coat samples from persistently infected (PI) carriers showed th e reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) had a great er sensitivity than the other tests. The antigen capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was least sensitive and could only be use d on samples containing cells (tissue or blood). When 169 clinical sam ples were examined, the RT-PCR detected the most positives (42) compar ed to the ELISA (32) and the immunoperoxidase test (IPT) (20). The RT- PCR was more successful when specific antibody was also present in the sample. The lower sensitivity of the IPT was related to the use of a 1 passage (4-day) test and the testing of toxic or contaminated sample s. The ELISA was found to be most suitable for large-scale testing for the diagnosis and control of pestivirus infections.