Modification of the passive heamagglutination test for detection of infectious bursal disease virus

Abstract

To modify the Passive Haemagglutination (PHA) test, a rapid test, used for qauntitative detection of viral antibodies, so that it can be used for determination of viral titres, dilutions of Infectious Bursal Disease Virus (IBDV) were used to sensitize the Red Blood Cells (RBCs) before reacting them with known IBD serum. Also, to improve sensitivity of the test, different RBC concentrations were used for the test. A standard IBDV gave positive PHA reaction upto its 1:2048 dilution. With different IBDV samples, positive PHA reactions occured upto dilutions, ranging from 1:16 to 1:4096. Different RBC concentrations gave different titres for same IBDV samples. With 0.6% and 0.2% RBC concentrations, mean PHA titres of IBDV samples increased from 454. 85 ± 315.32 to 2396.57 ± 489.55 (p < 0.05 ). It was concluded that PHA can be adopted for evaluation of viral titres. To improve sensitivity of the test, use of 0.2% RBC is recommended.