Discrepancy in the diagnosis of avian Borna disease virus infection of Psittaciformes by protein analysis of feather calami and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay of plasma antibodies

Abstract

The present study compares diagnosis of avian Borna disease virus (ABV) infection of psittacine birds by Western blot of bornaviral proteins in dried feather stems with the detection of anti-bornaviral protein antibodies to bornaviral proteins in plasma by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The detection of ABV proteins P40 and P24 in feather calami by Western blotting was possible even after storage of the dried feathers for several years at ambient temperature. Serological identification of anti-bornaviral antibodies may fail (e.g., in young birds, hatched from infected parents), whereas bornaviral P40 and P24 proteins were detected in feather stems. This failure can last at least 10 months after the birds are hatched. In some older birds (>5 years), ABV protein was only detectable in the brain, but not in some peripheral tissues, suggesting that the immune system had succeeded in removing the infecting ABV from tissues outside the brain. These results show that a combination of feather stem analysis for the presence of bornaviral proteins by Western blot combined with serological detection of anti-bornaviral antibodies by ELISA is the most reliable procedure for the detection of a bornaviral infection.