Development of an In-House Indirect ELISA kit for the serological detection of antibodies against infectious bursal disease in Chickens of Ethiopia

Abstract Infectious Bursal Disease Virus (IBDV) causes a highly contagious disease in young chickens. Due to its worldwide distribution, IBDV poses an important threat to the commercial poultry industry. Lymphoid cells in the bursa of Fabricius are the target cells of IBDV serotype-1 strains. The study was designed for the development of an In-House Indirect Enzyme Linked Immune Sorbent Assay (ELISA) kit as a suitable serological method for the rapid detection of antibodies against IBDV. The IBDV antigen dilution (1:2), the sample serum (1:500), and the mouse anti-chicken immunoglobulin G (IgG) labeled with horseradish peroxidase (HRP) (1:2,000) were determined to be optimal for this assay. The calculated cut-off value was 0.24. This homemade ELISA method was compared with the commercial ELISA kit for the detection of antibodies against IBDV in Chickens in Ethiopia. The performance of the newly developed and commercial ELISA kit was evaluated by the method reported by Samad et al. (1994). The sensitivity and specificity of the current ELISA assay showed 95.1% and 89.7% respectively. The average intra-assay % CV of the triplet of 2 samples showed 7.6 and interassay comparisons indicated a CV of 5.45%. Taking into consideration these data, we elaborated a home-based ELISA kit that is a valuable and cost-effective substitute for commercial kits in the diagnosis and control of IBDV infection in Ethiopia.