Review and Evaluation of Antibody ELISA for Application on Serum Samples in First Season Grazing Calves.

The -Ab ELISA assay is widely used as a diagnostic tool for monitoring gastrointestinal (GI) nematodes using milk samples from adult dairy cows. This assay is potentially also useful to analyse serum samples from first-season grazing (FSG) calves, providing a more cost-effective and robust diagnostic technique than the current serum pepsinogen assay. However, a comprehensive evaluation of its use in serum samples from FSG calves has not yet been conducted. In this study, we first reviewed the available scientific literature in which the Ab ELISA was applied to serum samples from FSG calves. Then, a field study was conducted to compare results from the -Ab ELISA assay with a serum pepsinogen assay on a set of 230 serum samples from 11 commercial dairy herds (seven in Belgium and four in Sweden). The literature review showed an increase in mean antibody levels, expressed as optical density ratio (ODR) values, from <0.4 (early grazing season) to values of 0.7-1.1 (late grazing season). Three out of five studies found a negative correlation between antibody levels measured during the late grazing season and weight gain, while the other two studies found no correlation between the two variables. Our field studies showed a good correlation between antibody levels and the results from the pepsinogen assay. Both indicators were negatively related to average daily weight gain in the Belgian herds, but not in the Swedish herds. Overall, the results suggest that the -Ab ELISA test can be a useful tool in FSG calves and could replace the use of the serum pepsinogen assay at the end of the grazing season for general monitoring purposes.