Development and comparison of serologic methods for diagnosing chicken anemia virus infection

This paper describes the development of an indirect immunoperoxidase assay (IIP) and an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for detecting antibodies to chicken anemia virus (VAC). The IIP assay developed used CAV-infected MDCC-MSB1 cells for detecting antibody to CAV, whereas the ELISA utilized gradient-purified immunoadsorbed CAV as the target antigen. The IIP and ELISA were compared with the standard indirect immunofluorescent antibody (IFA) assay, which is more conventionally used to screen chicken serum for antibodies against CAV. Comparative test results of 185 field samples of chicken serum by these three methods were in agreement 84% of the time. Both IFA and IIP assays yielded fewer positive tests than did the ELISA. IFA and IIP assays were in agreement 93% of the time, as compared with 91% agreement of IIP and ELISA results, or 84% agreement for comparative IFA and ELISA results.