Use of a recombinant maedi-visna virus protein ELISA for the serologic diagnosis of lentivirus infections in small ruminants.

Highly purified recombinant gag and env proteins derived from Icelandic strain 1514 of maedi-visna virus were used in an indirect enzyme immunoassay (ELISA) to detect antibodies to small ruminant lentiviruses in sheep and goat sera. The recombinant protein-based ELISA performed very well relative to whole maedi-visna virus and whole caprine arthritis-encephalitis-virus-based ELISAs in its ability to detect anti-maedi visna virus and anti-caprine arthritis-encephalitis virus antibodies, despite the antigenic and genomic variability that is known to exist within and between these two small ruminant lentiviruses. The data suggest that these recombinant maedi-visna virus proteins can be reliably used in an ELISA for the routine serodiagnosis of lentiviral infections in sheep and goats.