Detection of FMD virus antigens and antibodies using staph protein-a rapid agglutination test in comparison with the used traditional methods

Considering rapid accurate detection of FMD virus antigens and antibodies is an essential corner stonein the epidemiological studies; Staphylococcal protein-A (SPA) was successfully prepared and used forapplication of rapid agglutination test (RAT) on both of processed infected tongue epithelium andinfected cell culture fluid for detection of FMD virus antigens using reference viruses and anti-sera. Itwas found that the traditional virus neutralization test (VNT) consuming long time (18-24 hours) andRAT with the shortest time (2-5 minutes) were able to detect the antigens of FMDV type O; A and SAT2with titer ranged from ≤ log10 up to 7log10 TCID50/ml. In addition, RAT carried on serum samplesobtained from vaccinated animals revealed positive results with titers similar to those obtained by serumneutralization test (SNT) ranged from ≤ 2 up to 256 for the three virus types with shorter time (2-5minutes) than that consumed by SNT (18-24 hours). It was noticed that high antigen or antibody titersshowed strong agglutination while weak agglutination was noticed with lower titers. So it could beconcluded that the present work provides a rapid; sensitive and accurate test to detect FMDV antigensand antibodies as safe; easy to be used, highly sensitive, rapid field test, of low cost and having friendlyenvironmental relationship.