Detection of antibodies to caprine arthritis-encephalitis virus by protein G enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and immunoblotting

Abstract

Sera from goats suffering from caprine arthritis-encephalitis contained antibodies to virus proteins of 15, 17, 28, 40, and 130 kilodaltons in immunoblots of maedi-visna virus. We propose to use immunoblotting as a validation test for enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and demonstrate that the specificity of indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay can be improved by replacing second antibody by a protein G-avidin-biotin conjugate.