Development and evaluation of a monoclonal antibody based competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the detection of rinderpest virus antibodies

A competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay has been standardised for t he detection of antibodies to rinderpest virus in sera from cattle, sheep a nd goats. The test uses a neutralising monoclonal antibody (MAb) directed a gainst the haemagglutinin protein of rinderpest virus. The test is specific for rinderpest, as it failed to detect antibodies to paste des petits rumi nants virus in convalescent goat sera. A 45% inhibition of the binding of t he MAb to the antigen was used as the cut-off point for deciding the rinder pest status of the test samples. The specificity and sensitivity of the tes t and the stability of the test reagents were determined and compared to th e results obtained using a commercial kit with approximately 1,200 serum sa mples from cattle, sheep and goats in India. The current test compared very well with the commercial kit. The test is expected to be extremely useful for sera-monitoring and sere-surveillance of rinderpest in countries which are actively pursuing a rinderpest eradication programme.