Dot immunobinding assay for detection of bovine herpesvirus 4 antibodies in rabbits

A dot immunobinding assay (DIA) was used for the detection of antibody agai nst bovine herpesvirus 4 (BHV-4) in experimentally infected specific-pathog en-free male and female rabbits. A semipurified virus preparation was used as the antigen, and protein A/G-horseradish-peroxidase conjugate and diamin obenzidine tetrahydrochloride were used as the detection system. Results of the DIA procedure on serum samples of experimentally infected male and fem ale rabbits were compared with those of a complement-dependent virus neutra lization (VN) test. None of the tested sera (0/60 samples) from either male or female rabbits were positive by the complement-dependent VN test. Resul ts of the DIA procedure for the same tested sera were positive in 35 of 60 samples (58%) from BHV-4 infected rabbits, indicating higher sensitivity of DIA procedure as compared with the complement-dependent VN test.