Combined Antibody Tagged HRP Gold Nanoparticle Probe for Effective PCV2 Screening in Pig Farms

Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) causes immune repression and intercurrent infections in pigs, resulting in a huge economic loss to the pig breeding industry. Additionally, the spread of PCV2 in pig farms can pollute the living environment of the residents in the farm's vicinity, which increases the rate of infections. Therefore, rapid and sensitive detection methods are needed for disease prevention and timely environmental cleaning.

This research describes a highly sensitive sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) that utilizes gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) in a functional, specific antibody labeled probe for the detection of PCV2. Due to their high specific surface area and histocompatibility, AuNPs were used as carriers of HRP labeled anti-PCV2 antibodies to amplify the detection signal.

Compared to conventional sandwich ELISA procedures, this method resulted in higher sensitivity (51-fold) and a shorter assay time with a limit of detection of 195 TCID₅₀/mL. The cross-reactivity assay demonstrated that this assay was PCV2 specific.

The amplified Ab (HRP) labeled AuNPs probe provides a sensitive analytical approach for the determination of the traces of the PCV2 antigen in early diagnosis.