Blocking ELISA using recombinant NcSRS2 protein for diagnosing bovine neosporosis

Neospora caninum is the etiologic agent of neosporosis, which leads to economic impacts on cattle industry. The reference method for serodiagnosis of neosporosis is the indirect fluorescent antibody test (IFAT). However, IFAT is laborious, expensive, and is not practicable in high throughput screening. In order to facilitate the serological diagnosis of neosporosis, we developed a blocking enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (b-ELISA) based on NcSRS2 recombinant protein (rNcSRS2) and polyclonal antibodies against rNcSRS2 (b-ELISA/rNcSRS2). Compared to IFAT, b-ELISA/rNcSRS2 showed 93.7 % accuracy (98.7 % sensitivity and 88.7 % specificity), suggesting its potential as diagnostic assay to detect N. caninum antibodies in cattle sera.