Detection of Antibodies Against Hog Cholera Virus and Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus in Porcine Serum

Abstract

The antibodies in serum samples from an outbreak of low-virulent hog cholera in Spielbach, West Germany, 1966, as well as serum samples from pigs inoculated with hog cholera (HG) virus and bovine viral diarrhea (BVD) virus, respectively, were examined by means of 3 different methods: A modified direct complement fixation (GF) test, A peroxidase-linked antibody (PLA) assay based on microplates with fixed, viral-antigen containing cells, A neutralization assay carried out in microplates using the “chessboard” principle and read by means of the peroxidaselinked antibody (NPLA) assay. A good correlation was found in their ability to detect the antibodies. Generally neutralizing antibodies could be found 2 weeks after inoculation. By CF and PLA antibodies could be detected at the same time or up to 2 weeks later. All sera were tested by the 3 methods against both HG viral antigen and BVD viral antigen. HC-antibodies could not be distinguished from BVD-antibodies by CF but to a certain degree by PLA. BVD-antibodies could to a certain degree be distinguished from HG-antibodies by CF but not by PLA. This means that CF and PLA together provide a good possibility for differentiation between the two types of antibodies. NPLA could to a high degree of reliability distinguish between HG-antibodies and BVD-antibodies.