Development and use of ELISA in the control of foot-and-mouth disease

摘要

Foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is a highly contagious and economically devastating disease that requires laboratory investigation for definitive diagnosis. Highly specific and sensitive assays are needed to obtain a rapid result and so optimize the efficiency of FMD diagnosis and formulation of appropriate control measures. The development of the enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) has produced marked improvements in the diagnosis of FMD. An indirect sandwich ELISA has replaced the complement fixation test for FMDV virus antigen detection and a liquid phase blocking ELISA (LPBE) has replaced the virus neutralization test for the detection of serum antibodies. The LPBE is also employed to test the suitability of available vaccine strains for use in current outbreaks. The assays mainly use polyclonal antisera, but monoclonal antibodies have brought greater precision to virus strain characterization studies and have the potential to replace polyclonal sera in other assays.