Evaluation of three immunological assays in detection of bovine herpes virus-1 (BoHV-1) antibodies in buffaloes

A total of 81 sera samples from Murrah (34), Surti (20) and non-descript buffaloes (27) with the history of respiratory and reproductive disorders were collected from northern part of Tamil Nadu, India to detect bovine herpes virus-1 (BoHV-1) antibodies. All samples were subjected to indirect Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), Virus neutralization test (VNT) and Passive haemagglutination test (PHA) to detect BoHV-1 antibodies. Among the serological tests, PHA, VNT and ELISA revealed 27.16%, 43.21% and 50.62% BoHV-1 positivity respectively. The overall positivity irrespective of tests was found to be 54.32%. The sensitivity, specificity of PHA and VNT in comparison with ELISA were 46.34%, 70.73% and 85.00%, 92.50% respectively. Moderate agreement between ELISA and VNT (Kappa statistic, kappa = 0.56) and fair agreement between ELISA and PHA (kappa = 0.38) were found for the detection of BoHV-1 antibodies. Significant difference was found between indirect ELISA and PHA. VNT and PHA were found to be useful as the quantitative tests to estimate antibody level in buffalo where as ELISA could be performed at field level for large scale screening programme as it is rapid, efficient, reliable and highly sensitive.