The use of ELISA control of rinderpest

摘要

The enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) has played an important role in the control of rinderpest and will continue to play a major role as the world moves towards the eradication of rinderpest. In the early phases, control was achieved through the use of mass vaccination. Because of the thermolabile nature of the attenuated vaccine, seromonitoring was essential to determine the immune status of the national herd. This was accomplished by using first the indirect and later the competitive ELISA. Now, as countries move towards eradication and have ceased vaccination, the competitive ELISA is being used for serosurveillance to detect residual foci of infection. The introduction of the immunocapture ELISA for the detection of rinderpest antigens has allowed rapid, sensitive, specific, differential diagnosis of both rinderpest and peste des petits ruminants viruses. In the future, if recombinant vaccines are adopted for use in the eradication campaigns, ELISA may then be used for differentiation of vaccinated from infected animals. ELISA has been successfully introduced into many laboratories throughout the world to form the IAEA ELISA Network. This has been achieved through the use of fully field validated, standardized, quality controlled diagnostic kits using standardized protocols and after intensive training programmes. The quality of the results is maintained and assured through the use of both internal and external quality assurance programmes. The use of a single kit throughout Africa, the Middle East and Asia has greatly assisted in standardization, interpretation and international acceptance of results.