A novel recombinant Meq protein based dot-ELISA for rapid and confirmatory diagnosis of Marek's disease induced lymphoma in poultry.

•A specific, rapid and cost-effective technique of dot-ELISA was developed for detecting Meq protein in tissues of Marek’s disease virus (MDV) infected birds.•The dot-ELISA diagnosed MDV induced lymphoma in poultry with better sensitivity and high specificity than conventional PCR.•This dot-ELISA could also be helpful in differentiating other tumor causing viruses in poultry.