COMPARISON OF 3 COMMERCIAL ELISA KITS FOR THE DETECTION OF TURKEY RHINOTRACHEITIS VIRUS-ANTIBODIES

Three commercial ELISAs (Pathasure, Svanovir and Flockscreen) were com pared in their ability to detect turkey rhinotracheitis virus (TRTV) v accine-induced antibodies. Sequential sera taken from specified pathog en-free chickens, vaccinated with two combinations of live and inactiv ated TRTV vaccines were used. The vaccines were based on TRTV strains from the United Kingdom (Intervet) and from France (Rhone Merieux). On e ELISA failed to detect antibodies after live vaccination with both F rench and UK vaccines, but detected antibodies induced by both inactiv ated vaccines by 8 days after vaccination, The two other ELISAs respon ded to both live vaccinations equally well and both detected a rise in antibody level 8 days after the inactivated vaccination. The specific ity of the three ELISAs was 100%. When tested on held samples, all thr ee ELISAs indicated a high prevalence of TRTV antibodies in turkey flo cks in the Netherlands.