A monoclonal antibody-based blocking enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA-M) was developed and standardized for the detection of antibodies to infectious bovine rhinotracheitis virus (Bovine Herpesvirus type 1; BHV-1). A total of 266 samples of bovine sera (148 negative and 118 positive) were tested and compared with the results of a standard serum neutralization (SN) test. The ELISA-M was adjusted to 92.37% sensitivity, 92.56% especificity, 93.83% negative predictive value, 90.83% positive predictive value and to an accuracy of 92.48%, with an agreement index (k) equal to 0.85. The main advantages presented by the ELISA-M were its practicality and rapidity in performance. This test was shown to be a suitable alternative to SN tests in the detection of BHV-1 antibodies in cattle. However, the ELISA was unable to discriminate between BHV-1 and bovine herpesvirus type 5 (BHV-5) antibodies.
Bovine herpesvirus; BHV-1; infectious bovine rhinotracheitis virus; ELISA; monoclonal
