DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF AN ENZYME-IMMUNOASSAY FOR SPORIDESMIN IN PASTURE

An enzyme immunoassay was developed which could detect sporidesmin in pasture samples. The assay had a linear working range of 0.4-40 ng/ml sporidesmin A while validation using pasture extracts gave mean percen tage recoveries of 124% for samples containing 1 ng/ml sporidesmin and 97% for extracts containing 20 ng/ml sporidesmin. The sporidesmin lev els and numbers of Pithomyces chartarum spores from many pasture sampl es were compared. The amount of sporidesmin detected generally corresp onded to the number of spores found in the sample.