J Vet Sci.  2017 Mar;18(1):33-38. 10.4142/jvs.2017.18.1.33.

A serological study of severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome using a virus neutralization test and competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay

• Lee H
• Kim EJ
• Cho IS
• Song JY
• Choi JS
• Lee JY
• Shin YK

• KMID: 2412585
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4142/jvs.2017.18.1.33

Abstract

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is caused by the SFTS virus (SFTSV). The SFTSV appears to have a wide host range, as SFTSV-positive ticks have been isolated from both farm animals and wild rodents. Therefore, it is important to monitor SFTSV-positive animals to prevent the transmission of SFTSV from animals to humans. Previously, we developed a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (cELISA) to detect SFTSV-specific antibodies from field animals and compared the cELISA results to those from an indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA). In this study, cELISA results were compared to and evaluated against the results from both an IFA and a virus neutralization (VN) test of 193 bovine serum samples (including two bovine positive control sera) and 70 horse serum samples. The consistency (98.9%) between cELISA and VN results was higher than that (97.4%) between cELISA and IFA for the bovine serum samples. Similarly, for the horse serum samples, the consistency (88.6%) between cELISA and VN results was higher than that (84.3%) between the cELISA and IFA. These findings indicate that our newly developed cELISA can be used for surveillance or epidemiological studies of SFTSV in animals.

Keyword

competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome; virus neutralization test

MeSH Terms

Animals
Cattle
Cattle Diseases/*diagnosis/virology
Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay/*veterinary
Fluorescent Antibody Technique, Indirect/*veterinary
Horse Diseases/*diagnosis/virology
Horses
Neutralization Tests/*veterinary
Phlebotomus Fever/diagnosis/*veterinary/virology
Phlebovirus/*isolation & purification
Thrombocytopenia/diagnosis/veterinary/virology

Figure

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  Fig. 1 The antibody titers against the severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTSV) in immunized cattle for the competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (cELISA) and the virus neutralization (VN) test. The serum titers were detected by using both the cELISA and the VN test. (A) and (B) represent the PI values for the cELISA and VN titers in two different cattle following immunization.

• 

  Fig. 2 Cattle receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves for the competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (cELISA) vs. the immunofluorescence assay (IFA) and the virus neutralization (VN) datasets (n = 193), and the frequency distribution of PI values in the cELISA from 193 bovine serum samples. (A) cELISA ROC curves comparing the correlations with the two different reference methods, i.e., the IFA and the VN test. The area under the curve (AUC) are provided in the inset table. (B) The frequency distributions of the percent inhibition (PI) values from 193 bovine serum samples that were determined to be the severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus-negative and -positive by the VN test (cut-off dilution rate = 1:16). The established cut-off PI value for the cELISA (48.0%) is indicated by an arrow.

• 

  Fig. 3 Horse receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves for the competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (cELISA) vs. the immunofluorescence assay (IFA) and the virus neutralization (VN) datasets (n = 70), and the frequency distribution of the PI values in the cELISA from 70 horse serum samples. (A) The cELISA ROC curves comparing the correlation with the two different reference methods, i.e., the IFA and the VN test. The area under the curve (AUC) are provided in the inset table. (B) The frequency distributions of the percent inhibition (PI) values from 70 horse serum samples that were determined to be the severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus-negative and -positive by the VN test (cut-off dilution rate = 1:16). The established cut-off PI value for the cELISA (57.4%) is indicated by an arrow.

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