title: Influenza A plasma and serum virus antibody detection comparison in dogs using blocking enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The influenza A virus (IAV) is an important zoonotic pathogen with infections also reported in dogs. IAV infections can be detected through the presence of antibodies using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Serum is the only standard sample source; however, there is no information on the availability of other sample sources for IAV antibody detection in dogs. Compared with serum, plasma is more widely employed in most animal hospitals. The object of this study is to investigate whether plasma collected in ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) tubes (EDTA plasma) or heparin tubes (heparin plasma) could be used in the ELISA protocol instead of serum for IAV antibody detection in dogs.
  
  
  METHODS
  Totally, 82 matched EDTA plasma and serum sample pairs and 79 matched heparin plasma and serum sample pairs were employed using blocking enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (bELISA). The agreement and correlation between the plasma (EDTA or heparin plasma) and serum were assessed using the agreement index kappa (kD) calculation and Pearson correlation coefficient, respectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The agreement index kD of EDTA plasma and serum was 1.0, and that of heparin plasma and serum was 0.85. The Pearson correlation coefficient of EDTA plasma and serum was 0.87 (p<0.01), and that of heparin plasma and serum was 0.82 (p<0.01).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results proved that plasma, especially EDTA plasma, could be substituted for serum in the bELISA test. This might greatly expand the clinical applicability of IAV antibody detection in dogs.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, National Taiwan University, 1 Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, Taiwan.
authors.forename: H T
authors.initials: HT
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Institute of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, National Taiwan University, 1 Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, Taiwan.
authors.forename: C H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, National Taiwan University, 1 Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, Taiwan.
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.affiliation: Institute of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, National Taiwan University, 1 Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, Taiwan.
authors.forename: C H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Institute of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, National Taiwan University, 1 Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, Taiwan.
authors.forename: P Y
authors.initials: PY
authors.lastname: Lo
authors.affiliation: Institute of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, National Taiwan University, 1 Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, Taiwan.
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, National Taiwan University, 1 Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, Taiwan.
authors.forename: L C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Wang
keywords: dog; enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; influenza A virus; plasma; serum