The efficacy of a commercial ELISA as an alternative to virus neutralisation test for the detection of antibodies to EAV

Infection with equine arteritis virus is a notifiable disease with sporadic occurrence in the UK. As stallions may harbour the virus after infection, horses are screened for exposure by serological testing prior to breeding. The virus neutralisation test is considered the 'gold standard' serological screening test, but it is time-consuming and labour intensive; consequently there is a move towards more rapid screening methodology. In this study, a commercially available EVA antibody ELISA is assessed. The ELISA performed poorly with a specificity [corrected] of 26% and a sensitivity [corrected] of 96% in the samples analysed. It was concluded that this ELISA would be of little value for reducing sample turnaround time. The study emphasises the need for in-house validation of commercially available kits.