DETECTION OF BOVINE ANTIBODIES TO CHLAMYD IA-PSITTACI BY AN ELISA

A research ELISA for the detection of bovine antibodies to Chlamydia p sittaci was compared with two commercially available ELISAs. A commerc ial indirect ELISA produced similar results to the research ELISA. In contrast, the commercial ELISA produced a greater estimate for the pre valence of infected animals. The research ELISA appeared to be signifi cantly more sensitive than the complement fixation test when used on 4 049 sera from cows with a fertility problem for the last 12 months. I n the ELISA, 79% of sera were positive compared with only 8% in the CF T A significantly greater prevalence of seropositive animals was found in the period May to October using the ELISA and from June to August using the CFT Additional investigations in 10 farms revealed that the seroprevalence as detected by the ELISA was 39% compared to 9% by the CFT.