Lo. Andresen, Development and evaluation of an indirect ELISA for detection of exfoliative toxin ExhA, ExhB or ExhC produced by Staphylococcus hyicus, VET MICROB, 68(3-4), 1999, pp. 285-292
Immunoblot analysis and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) confirmed
previous reports that the Staphylococcus hyicus exfoliative toxins ExhA an
d ExhB are metalloproteins, and further indicated that ExhC is also a metal
loprotein. An indirect ELISA. was developed for the detection of toxigenic
strains as an alternative method to the use of phage typing for selection o
f S. hyicus isolates to be used in autogenous vaccine against exudative epi
dermitis in pigs. The indirect ELISA was evaluated by investigating the pre
sence of toxin among a total of 655 S. hyicus isolates from 69 pig skin sam
ples, one from each of the 69 pig herds with outbreak of exudative epidermi
tis. Toxigenic S. hyicus were detected in 74% of the cases by ELISA. From e
ach of the five cases, in which initially no toxigenic S. hyicus were found
, a further 40 S. hyicus-like colonies were tested in ELISA. Testing of thi
s number of colonies has a >99% probability of disclosing toxigenic S. hyic
us. Toxin-producing isolates were found in only two of the five cases inves
tigated. This may indicate the existence of one or more variants of the exf
oliative toxin of S. hyicus that are not detected in the indirect ELISA or
that S. hyicus may be displaced from lesions of exudative epidermitis. (C)
1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.