Development of an in-house ELISA for detection of antibodies against Enterococcus cecorum in Pekin ducks.

Development of an in-house ELISA for detection of antibodies against Enterococcus cecorum in Pekin ducks. Avian Pathol. 2020 Apr 09;:1-14 Authors: Jung A, Rautenschlein S Abstract Enterococcus cecorum (EC) is known to cause skeletal lesions in broiler chickens and also systemic infections in Pekin ducks. Despite the importance of the pathogen, there is still a lack of serological diagnostic tools for the detection of EC infections. Here we describe the development of an in-house indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the detection of EC-specific antibodies and its application by examination of 67 sera from experimentally infected Pekin ducks, 710 field samples from 4 Pekin duck breeder flocks previously vaccinated with inactivated vaccines and 80 samples from commercial Pekin ducks coming from vaccinated parent flocks. All groups that had been experimentally inoculated via air sac route were positive in the new ELISA, with significantly (P ≤ 0.05) increased mean S/P ratios of 0.71 to 2.70 at days 7, 14 and 21 post infection, while orally inoculated ducks and the EC-free control group remained negative with mean S/P ratios of 0.0 to 0.15. Antibodies were also detected in each of 4 vaccinated Pekin duck breeder flocks, 67.8 % of the samples were antibody positive. The highest S/P ratios were found between 16 and 26 weeks (median S/P ratios from 0.15 to 1.03), but antibodies were still detected in some serum samples in...
Source: Avian Pathology - Category: Pathology Authors: Tags: Avian Pathol Source Type: research