Demonstration by ELISA of antibodies to Aujeszky disease virus in porcine blood serum and meat juice

Indirect ELISA allowing the demonstration of antibodies to Aujeszky disease virus (ADV) not only in blood serum but also in pork is described. A very high cytotoxicity of and approximately ten times lower concentrations of an tibodies in meat juice must be taken into account in tests of pork. The cyt otoxicity of meat juice for cell cultures is still apparent at dilutions 1 : 8 to 1 : 32 and consequently the use of virus neutralization test for the demonstration elf antibodies in pork is limited to animals with very high titres of virus neutralizing antibodies (greater than or equal to 1 : 80). The high sensitivity and specificity of ELISA has allowed the demonstration of antibodies to ADV in meat of animals with marginal titres of virus neut ralizing antibodies in blood serum (less than or equal to 1 : 2) even after twelve-month storage at -20 degrees C. The State Veterinary Institutes in the Czech Republic have been using ELISA successfully for checks of swine h erds and imported pork.