Evaluation of the Serologic Cross-Reactivity between Transmissible Gastroenteritis Coronavirus and Porcine Respiratory Coronavirus Using Commercial Blocking Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay Kits

Evaluation of the Serologic Cross-Reactivity between Transmissible Gastroenteritis Coronavirus and Porcine Respiratory Coronavirus Using Commercial Blocking Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay Kits

Ronaldo Magtoto, Korakrit Poonsuk, David Baum, Jian-Qiang Zhang, Qi Chen, Ju Ji, Pablo Piñeyro, Jeffrey Zimmerman, Luis G Giménez-Lirola

Current measures to prevent TGEV from entering a naive herd include quarantine and testing for TGEV-seronegative animals. However, TGEV serology is complicated due to the cross-reactivity with PRCV, which circulates subclinically in most swine herds worldwide. Conventional serological tests cannot distinguish between TGEV and PRCV antibodies; however, blocking ELISAs using antigen containing a large deletion in the amino terminus of the PRCV S protein permit differentiation of PRCV and TGEV antibodies. Several commercial TGEV/PRCV blocking ELISAs are available, but performance comparisons have not been reported in recent research. This study demonstrates that the serologic cross-reactivity between TGEV and PRCV affects the accuracy of commercial blocking ELISAs. Individual test results must be interpreted with caution, particularly in the event of suspect results. Therefore, commercial TGEV/PRCV blocking ELISAs should only be applied on a herd basis.This study compared the performances of three commercial transmissible gastroenteritis virus/porcine respiratory coronavirus (TGEV/PRCV) blocking enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) using serum samples (n = 528) collected over a 49-day observation period from pigs inoculated with TGEV strain Purdue (n = 12), TGEV strain Miller (n = 12), PRCV (n = 12), or with virus-free culture medium (n = 12). ELISA results were evaluated both with “suspect” results interpreted as positive and then as negative. All commercial kits showed excellent diagnostic specificity (99 to 100%) when testing samples from pigs inoculated with virus-free culture medium. However, analyses revealed differences between the kits in diagnostic sensitivity (percent TGEV- or PRCV-seropositive pigs), and all kits showed significant (P 

2019

ELISA, Transmissible gastroenteritis virus, Antibody, cross-reactivity, porcine respiratory coronavirus, serum, swine

DOI: 10.1128/mSphere.00017-19

mSphere

American Society for Microbiology

Microbiology

EN