Assessment of a monoclonal antibody-based competitive enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (cELISA) for diagnosis of brucellosis in infected and Rev. 1 vaccinated sheep and goats.

In this study a cELISA for the diagnosis of brucellosis due to B. melitensis in sheep and goats was evaluated and its capability of discriminating vaccinated from infected animals was assessed. Information is provided indicating that the cELISA has a diagnostic sensitivity (99.4%) and specificity (98.9%) in sheep and goats comparable to that of many standard indirect ELISA methods. In addition, the test proved able to distinguish between vaccinated and infected animals with an accuracy of up to 90% and results reproducibility of 93%. It was concluded that the cELISA could be useful for differentiation of Rev.1 vaccinated and naturally infected sheep and goats.