A modified indirect immunofluorescent assay for the detection of antibody to Eperythrozoon ovis in sheep.

Experimental ovine eperythrozoonosis was studied using Giemsa staining of blood films and a modified indirect immunofluorescent antibody assay (IFAA). The serums of 21 Border Leicester Merino cross lambs between 12 weeks and 7 months-of-age were analysed before and after infection with Eperythrozoon ovis (E. ovis) using the IFAA test. No rise in the IFAA titre was seen until day 7 and this coincided with the first detection of E. ovis organisms in blood smears stained with Giemsa. The percentage of E. ovis infected red blood cells peaked on day 14, but the IFAA titre did not peak until day 35. Titres to E. ovis, on average, had begun to drop by day 63. There was considerable individual variation in response to E. ovis infection as measured by the IFAA. Titres as high as 6,400 were observed in individual sheep at the peak of E. ovis parasitaemia of red cells. One sheep had a titre of 51,200 nineteen days after infection, and titres of 3,000 were maintained for several months in a few sheep. The assay proved reliable, and up to 100 samples per day could be tested. The antigenicity of the slide preparations was found to be satisfactory after storage for 6 months at -20 degrees C and 4 degrees C and for 28 months at -70 degrees C. Temperature fluctuations during storage rendered slides unsuitable for the IFAA after these times. A method of storing E. ovis infected blood in liquid nitrogen is described.