Evaluation of three tests for the detection of rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus in wild rabbits

Two double antibody sandwich ELISA kits and the immunoblot were evaluated for the detection of rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD) virus in wild rabbits. Either liver alone or liver and spleen separately or a pool of liver and spleen tissues from 106 wild rabbits were tested in all three tests. They produced very similar results, except that ELISA kit A gave three doubtful results which were confirmed as negative by retesting in the same test and by the immunoblot and ELISA kit B. Both ELISA kits can be used for the rapid detection of acute RHD, and ELISA kit A can detect both acute and chronic RHD virus infection. The immunoblot is useful as a confirmatory test when ELISA-positive results do not correlate with gross and/or histopathological findings.