Evaluation of western blotting for the diagnosis of enzootic bovine leukemia

Abstract

A western blotting (WB) procedure has been developed for detecting antibodies to bovine leukosis virus (BLV) in cattle sera. Two hundred and thirty three serum samples from naturally infected cattle with BLV virus and serial bleedings from experimentally BLV infected cows were used. An agar gel immunodiffusion test (AGID) was used for comparing with the results obtained by WB. The AGID positive sera showed a different degree of reactivity by WB test against the two most important viral antigens (gp51 and p24), or against one of them. Other proteins (gp30, p15, p12 and p10) were not detected with any AGID positive sera, being observed occasionally three bands corresponding to the p24 protein. Using sera obtained by BLV experimental inoculation, the antibodies directed to p24 appeared early (between the 2nd and 4th week post inoculation) and thereafter antibodies to gp51were detected in some animals. The analysis of field serum samples by AGID as compared to WB showed an agreement of 90.9%. Only 1.7% of sera were negative by AGID and positive by WB and 7.2% that were not conclusive by AGID and were defined by WB (4.2% as positive and 3.0% as negative).

Recent Advances in Biotechnology in Animal Health

“…It has also been used in combination with other diagnostic methods to increase their precision and efficiency in detection of diseases (Jindal and Sharma 2010). Various researches have been carried out for the effective employment of this technique to detect different chronic and asymptomatic enzootic infections such as Enzootic Bovine Leukemia caused by Bovine Leukosis Virus (BLV) through detection of the hosts humoral response produced against the viral envelop and core proteins (glycoprotein gp51 and core protein p24, respectively) (Gonzalez et al 1999).…”

Enzootic bovine leukosis: performance of an indirect ELISA applied in serological diagnosis

“…This has also been pointed out in other continents and great efforts have been made in many countries for its control and eradication. These efforts are based on the application of tests such as immunodiffusion (ID), enzime linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), western blot (WB) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)13,15,20,24,25), following the separation or removal of the virus-carrier animals.…”

“…E-mail: etgonzal@fcv.unlp.edu.ar available to detect antibodies against the principal viral proteins (gp51 and p24) (20). WB is an other serologycal test which is highly specific and suitable to be introduced as confirmatory test at late stages in the eradication programs (9).…”