Standardization of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for detection of antibody to avian reticuloendotheliosis virus

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for detection of antibodies to reticuloendotheliosis virus (REV) at single serum dilution was standardized. REV HI, one of the Korean field isolates, was inoculated into chicken embryo fibroblast (CEF) cells and was harvested from the culture fluids and cells after 10 to 12 days. Viruses were purified by centrifugation at the $107,000{\times}g$ for 12 hours on 20, 30, 45% (W/V) sucrose gradient. Virus specific fraction was collected and used as ELISA antigen. To standardize ELISA, the optimal concentration of coating antigen ($1{\mu}g/well$) and conjugate (1/1000) was determined by corrected OD (OD value of positive serum-OD value of negative serum) and P/N ratio (OD value of positive serum/OD value of negative serum). To calculate ELISA titer by measuring absorbance at 1/400 single serum dilution, serum titrations were carried out for various sample sera together with standard positive and negative sera. The observed titers of serum samples were plotted against sample/positive (s/p) ratios at 1/400 serum dilution. From the above data, the ELISA titers could be calculated by the equation of $log_{10}$ ELISA titer = 2.2763 ($log_{10}$ s/p) + 3.482 (r = 0.93). For evaluating the sensitivity, the standardized method were compared with conventional agar gel immunodiffusion (AGID) test method using serum samples collected from REV infected field chicken flocks. Fifty seven of 60 samples (95%) were positive for REV by ELISA, whereas only 11 (18.3%) samples were positive by AGID test. This results suggested that the ELISA tests developed in this study could be used for detection of antibodies to REV with high sensitivity.

세망내피증 바이러스 항체검출을 위한 ELISA 표준화