title: First international collaborative study to evaluate rabies antibody detection method for use in monitoring the effectiveness of oral vaccination programmes in fox and raccoon dog in Europe.
abstract: The most effective and sustainable method to control and eliminate rabies in wildlife is the oral rabies vaccination (ORV) of target species, namely foxes and raccoon dogs in Europe. According to WHO and OIE, the effectiveness of oral vaccination campaigns should be regularly assessed via disease surveillance and ORV antibody monitoring. Rabies antibodies are generally screened for in field animal cadavers, whose body fluids are often of poor quality. Therefore, the use of alternative methods such as the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) has been proposed to improve reliability of serological results obtained on wildlife samples. We undertook an international collaborative study to determine if the commercial BioPro ELISA Rabies Ab kit is a reliable and reproducible tool for rabies serological testing. Our results reveal that the overall specificity evaluated on naive samples reached 96.7%, and the coefficients of concordance obtained for fox and raccoon dog samples were 97.2% and 97.5%, respectively. The overall agreement values obtained for the four marketed oral vaccines used in Europe were all equal to or greater than 95%. The coefficients of concordance obtained by laboratories ranged from 87.2% to 100%. The results of this collaborative study show good robustness and reproducibility of the BioPro ELISA Rabies Ab kit.
authors.affiliation: ANSES - Nancy Laboratory for Rabies and Wildlife, Technopôle Agricole et Vétérinaire, CS 40009, 54220 Malzéville, France. Electronic address: marine.wasniewski@anses.fr.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wasniewski
authors.affiliation: Laboratório Nacional de Investigação Veterinária (LNIV), Estrada de Benfica No 701, 1549-011 Lisboa, Portugal.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Almeida
authors.affiliation: Vet Med Labor GmbH, Division of IDEXX Laboratories, Mörikestr. 28/3, 71636 Ludwigsburg, Germany.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Baur
authors.affiliation: Croatian Veterinary Institute Laboratory for Rabies/Virology, Savska cesta 143, Zagreb 10000, Croatia.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bedekovic
authors.affiliation: Institute for Diagnosis and Animal Health, NRL For Rabies, no 63, Dr. Staicovici Street, sector 5 050557 Bucharest, Romania.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Boncea
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Diagnóstico da Raiva, Instituto Pasteur - Secretaria de Estado da Saúde de São Paulo, Avenida Paulista, 393 - Cerqueira César, São Paulo/SP 01311-000, Brazil.
authors.forename: L B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Chaves
authors.affiliation: Kimron Veterinary Institute Rabies Laboratory, Derech Hamacabim street, Bet Dagan 50250, Israel.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: David
authors.affiliation: Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie, Viale dell'Università 10, 35020 Legnaro, Padova, Italy.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: De Benedictis
authors.affiliation: Institute of Food Safety, Animal Health and Environment "BIOR" Animal Diseases Diagnostic Laboratory, Lejupes iela 3, LV-1076 Riga, Latvia.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dobrostana
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire Départemental d'Analyses du Pas-de-Calais, Parc de Hautes technologies des Bonnettes 2, rue du genévrier, 62022 Arras cedex 2, France.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Giraud
authors.affiliation: National Veterinary Institute, Laboratory for Virology, Gerbiceva 60, 1 000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hostnik
authors.affiliation: National Food and Veterinary Risk Assessment Institute, Virology Unit, Kairiukscio Str. 10, LT-08409 Vilnius, Lithuania.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Jaceviciene
authors.affiliation: Landesamt für Verbraucherschutz Sachsen-Anhalt, Fachbereich Veterinärmedizin, Haferbreiter Weg 132-135, 39576 Stendal, Germany.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kenklies
authors.affiliation: Institute of Virology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, JLU-Giessen, Schubertstr. 81, 35392 Giessen, Germany.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: König
authors.affiliation: Estonian Veterinary and Food Laboratory, Virology and Serology Department, Kreutzwaldi 30, 51 006 Tartu, Estonia.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mähar
authors.affiliation: State Veterinary Institute Zvolen, Pod drahami 918, 960 86 Zvolen, Slovakia.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mojzis
authors.affiliation: Kansas State University Rabies Laboratory, 2005 Research Park Circle, Manhattan, KS 66502, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.affiliation: University Ss Cyril and Methodius in Skopje, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Skopje, Department for Microbiology and Immunology, Lazar Pop Trajkov 5-7, 1000 Skopje, Republic of Macedonia.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mrenoski
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular Biology, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, Südufer 10, 17493 Greifswald - Insel Riems, Germany.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.affiliation: Agricultural Research Council-Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute (ARC-OVI), 100 old Soutpan road, Onderstepoort 0110 Pretoria, South Africa.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ngoepe
authors.affiliation: Research Institute for Animal Science In Biochemistry and Toxicology, 3-7-11, Hashimotodai, Midori-ku, Sagamihara-Kanagawa 252-0132, Japan.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nishimura
authors.affiliation: Finnish Food Safety Authority, Evira Department Veterinary Virology, Mustialankatu, 3 00790 Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nokireki
authors.affiliation: Diagnostic Veterinary Laboratory - Podgorica Bul. Dzordza Vasingtona, bb p.fah 69, 81000 Podgorica, Montenegro.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pejovic
authors.affiliation: National Veterinary Research Institute, Department of Virology, Partyzanow av. 57, 24-100 Pulawy, Poland.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Smreczak
authors.affiliation: DTU, National Veterinary Institute Division of Virology, Lindholm Kalvehave Havnevej 51 DK- 4771 Kalvehave, Denmark.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Strandbygaard
authors.affiliation: AGES, Institute for Veterinary Disease Control Mödling, Department for Virology Robert Koch Gasse 17 A-2340 Mödling, Austria.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Wodak
authors.affiliation: ANSES - Nancy Laboratory for Rabies and Wildlife, Technopôle Agricole et Vétérinaire, CS 40009, 54220 Malzéville, France.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cliquet
mesh_terms: D000284:Administration, Oral; D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild / Q000821:virology; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000379:methods*; D005589:Foxes / Q000821:virology; D017589:Immunization Programs; D007391:International Cooperation; D011818:Rabies / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000662:veterinary*; D011819:Rabies Vaccines / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000276:immunology*; D011820:Rabies virus / Q000276:immunology*; D046031:Raccoon Dogs / Q000821:virology; D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D011819:Rabies Vaccines; D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic
keywords: Collaborative study; ELISA; Oral vaccination campaigns; Rabies; Rabies antibodies