A robust quadruple protein-based idirect ELISA for detection of antibodies to African swine fever virus in pigs

Abstract

African swine fever (ASF) emerged in domestic pigs and wild boars in China in 2018 and rapidly spread to neighboring Asian countries. Currently, no effective vaccine or diagnostic tests are available to prevent its spread. We developed a robust quadruple recombinant-protein-based indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (QrP-iELISA) using four antigenic proteins (CD2v, CAP80, p54, and p22) to detect ASF virus (ASFV) antibodies and compared it with a commercial kit (IDvet) using ASFV-positive and -negative serum samples. The maximum positive/negative value was 24.033 at a single antigen concentration of 0.25 μg/mL and quadruple ASFV antigen combination of 1 μg/mL at a 1:100 serum dilution. Among 70 ASFV-positive samples, 65, 67, 65, 70, 70, and 14 were positive above the cut-offs of 0.121, 0.121, 0.183, 0.065, 0.201, and 0.122, for CD2v, CAP80, p54, p22-iELISA, QrP-iELISA, and IDvet, respectively, with sensitivities of 92.9%, 95.7%, 92.9%, 100%, 100%, and 20%, respectively, all with 100% specificity. The antibody responses in QrP-iELISA and IDvet were similar in pigs infected with ASFV I. QrP-iELISA was more sensitive than IDvet for early antibody detection in pigs infected with ASFV II. These data provide a foundation for developing advanced ASF antibody detection kits critical for ASF surveillance and control.