Serodiagnosis of Aleutian Disease Virus Infection in Mink - Short Term Stability and Long Term Consistency of Antibody Levels Measured by VP2 ELISA
Serodiagnosis of Aleutian Disease Virus Infection in Mink - Short Term Stability and Long Term Consistency of Antibody Levels Measured by VP2 ELISA
Anna-Maria Andersson*, Ann-Kristin Nyman, Per Wallgren
ABSTRACT
Aleutian disease virus (ADV) infection in mink typically cause hypergammaglobulinemia, plasmacytosis and immune complex disease. Due to lack of success in eradicating Aleutian disease (AD) by stamping out, a new strategy for disease control with focus on evaluation of disease progression has been proposed. For estimation of antibodies in serum and dried blood samples collected from mink, a VP2 ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) system was recently evaluated. However, such estimations of disease progression are commonly based on single sampling occasions and it is essential to know if estimated antibody levels vary over a period of weeks or months. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the short term stability and the long term consistency of the antibody levels to Aleutian disease virus (ADV). When evaluated in the short term, i.e. between consecutive days and weeks, the estimated antibody levels were comparable and did not exceed the predefined equivalence interval based on the methodological variance for the VP2 ELISA. This confirms that the VP2 ELISA can be used for quantitatively estimating the ADV antibody levels even when the screening extends over a couple of weeks. For the long term consistency, a significantly higher mean ADV antibody level was recorded in February compared to in October. Therefore, if the VP2 ELISA should be used as a tool for selection of breeding females in a control program for AD, the optimal sampling time at which the ADV antibody levels best can predict the breeding performance of the female needs to be further evaluated.
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