G. Rajashekara et al., A rapid strip immunoblot assay for the specific detection of Salmonella enteritidis infection in chickens, INT J F MIC, 53(1), 1999, pp. 53-60
A rapid strip immunoblot assay (RSIA) was developed using recombinant SEF14
antigen. The rSEF14-RSIA was very specific in detecting antibodies to Salm
oilella enteritidis in chickens. When serum samples obtained from groups of
chickens (N = 5) inoculated with six different Salmonella serovars were te
sted in rSEF14-RSIA, only serum samples obtained from S. enteritidis inocul
ated birds reacted with rSEF14 antigen except for a group of chickens that
had been inoculated with S. dublin. To assess the sensitivity of the rSEF14
-RSIA. groups of chickens were inoculated with either 10(4) cfu or 10(10) c
fu of S. enteritidis and the serum and egg yolk were analyzed for SEF14 ant
ibodies. By 1 week after infection 66-78% of chickens were found positive f
or SEF14 antibodies in the serum and the number of positive birds increased
subsequently to 89-100%. The S. enteritidis specific antibodies appeared a
s early as 6 days after infection in the egg yolk of infected chickens. The
antibodies to SEF14 in both the serum and egg yolk persisted for at least
7 weeks after infection in a significant proportion of chickens. Our result
s suggest that rSEF14-RSIA can be a practical and efficient screening test
for identifying S. enteritidis infected chickens. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science
B.V. All rights reserved.