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J. Venom. Anim. Toxins incl. Trop. Dis.

V.20, 2014.

Short communication - ISSN 1678-9199.

 

Diagnosis of arboviruses using indirect sandwich IgG ELISA in horses from the Brazilian Amazon

 
Alexandre do Rosário Casseb1*, Márcio Roberto Teixeira Nunes2, Sueli Guerreiro Rodrigues2, Elizabeth Salbé Travassos da Rosa2, Livia Medeiros Neves Casseb2, Samir Manssor Moraes Casseb2, Sandro Patroca da Silva3, Érika Dayane Leal Rodrigues1, Pedro Fernando da Costa Vasconcelos2 4

 

1Institute of Health and Livestock Production, Federal Rural University of the Amazon (UFRA), Av. Presidente Tancredo Neves, 2501, Belém, Pará State 66077-901, Brazil

2Department of Arbovirology and Hemorrhagic Fevers, Evandro Chagas Institute, Ananindeua, Pará State, Brazil

3Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Pará State, Belém, Pará, Brazil

4Department of Pathology, Pará State University, Belém, Pará State, Brazil

 

ABSTRACT

Background

The Amazon as a whole is the largest reservoir of arboviruses worldwide, while the Brazilian Amazon hosts the largest variety of arboviruses isolated to date. In this study, the results of an indirect sandwich IgG ELISA, standardized for 19 arbovirustypes circulating among horses in Brazilian Amazon, were compared to results of the hemagglutination inhibition test. A screening test assessed the conditional probability distribution and a Pearson linear correlation test determined the correlation strength among the absorbance values recorded for viruses from the same family.

 

Findings

Sensitivity varied between 40.85 and 100%; the specificity was low and ranged from 39.71 to 67.0%; and the accuracy varied between 41 and 65.2%. The test developed in this study yielded a large number of serological cross-reactions.

 

Conclusions

The test can be employed to detect IgG antibodies within one arbovirus family; however, the hemagglutination test or other more specific techniques, such as the serum neutralization test in mice or the plaque-reduction neutralization test, are essential complementary methods for positive cases.

 

Key words: Horses; Arboviruses; ELISA

 

Ethics committee approval

All of the procedures, which involved newborn (2–3 days old) Swiss albino mice and domesticated animals, were performed with utmost strictness to avoid any unnecessary suffering. The present study was submitted to and approved by the Ethics Committee on Animal Research (CEPAN) of the Evandro Chagas Institute (IEC; ruling 054/2009 CEPAN/IEC).

 

Received: October 16, 2013; Accepted: May 28, 2014

 

Corresponding author: alexcasseb@yahoo.com.br

 

Competing interests

The authors declare that there are no competing interests.

 

Authors’ contributions

ARC took part in sample collection, serological tests and manuscript writing. LMNC carried out serological tests and statistical analysis. SPS contributed in sample collection and serological tests. SMMC, MRTN, SGR and ESTR performed serological tests. ÉDLR performed serological tests and wrote the article. PFCV participated in writing and reviewing the article. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.