Proline-glutamic acid-proline-lysine peptide set as a specific antigen for the serological diagnosis of strangles

The reactivity of synthesised peptide sets for the M-like proteins SeM and SzPSe with sera from horses infected with Streptococcus equi or Streptococcus zooepidemicus, or control horses, was investigated by an ELISA. Seventeen horses were infected experimentally with S equi or S zooepidemicus, convalescent sera were obtained from 25 horses and control sera were obtained from 1945 horses. The serum antibody responses of individual horses to the peptide sets were highly variable. Some of the peptide sets for SeM reacted strongly with the sera from the horses infected experimentally with S equi, but also reacted with sera from some of the horses infected experimentally with S zooepidemicus. However, the proline-glutamic acid-proline-lysine (PEPK) repeats peptide set, synthesised from the PEPK repeats areas of SzPSe, reacted most strongly with the sera from the horses infected experimentally with S equi and the horses convalescing from strangles, and reacted only minimally with the sera from the horses infected experimentally with S zooepidemicus and the control horses.