Detection of avian leukosis virus: comparison of five techniques

Five techniques were compared for their ability to detect decreasing dilutions of RAV-I, an avian leukosis sarcoma virus, in serially passaged chick embryo fibroblast cell cultures. The indirect fluorescent antibody test, sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and reverse transcriptase assay were equally sensitive in detecting the virus. The indirect immunoperoxidase and complement fixation avian leukosis tests were less sensitive. It is recommended that the sandwich ELISA be used for routine detection of the avian leukosis sarcoma virus group as possible vaccine contaminants because it is rapid and simple to perform and may be carried out on a large number of samples conveniently.