Automation of the enzyme immunoassay for the serodiagnosis of infectious diseases in livestock.

The enzyme immunoassay is a highly versatile diagnostic tool whose use is rapidly spreading throughout the world. With the number of reagents, processing steps and possible protocols involved, and the growing list of devices used to automate or semiautomate the test, there is an immediate need to develop standard procedures for evaluating test performance and making diagnostic decisions. The positive and negative reference sera against which test samples are compared must be carefully selected and evaluated to insure that they are representative of field populations. Only then will it be possible to obtain uniform results within and between test facilities.