Prevalence of antibodies to bovine viral diarrhoea virus and/or border disease virus in domestic ruminants.

A total of 62 sera collected from cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats and camels were investigated for the presence of antibodies to bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) virus. The prevalence of neutralizing antibodies to BVD virus was 49.2, 52.0, 27.5, 31.4 and 52.5% in cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats and camels, respectively. The positive sera were titrated against BVD virus (BVDV) strains NADL and Oregon C24V; the latter is closely related to border disease (BD) virus. The frequency distributions of the antibody titres to both strains are presented. The statistical analysis shows no significant difference between the antibody titres to BVDV strains NADL and Oregon C24V in cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats and camels. On the other hand antibody titres to BVDV were significantly higher (P < 0.05) in cattle and buffalo in comparison with sheep, goats and camels. The cell-bound immunoassay (CBIA) is a serological rest established for the detection and titration of antibodies to BVD virus and BD virus. The percentage of agreement between the CBIA and the neutralizing peroxidase-linked antibody (NPLA) test was 96.1 and 95.3% in cattle and buffalo, respectively. The sensitivity of the CBIA in comparison with the NPLA was 100% while the specificity was 92.3 and 90.3% when testing the sera of cattle and buffalo, respectively. The method is easy to perform, cheap and suitable for the conditions in Egypt.