Standardization of enzyme linked immunosorbent assay for the detection of antibodies to Argas persicus (Oken, 1818) infestation in fowl of Telangana State

In the present study the checker board titration was applied for optimization of Goat anti-chicken IgY HRPO conjugate, Argas persicus salivary gland antigen concentration and serum dilution. In the present study, the optimum conjugate dilution was 1:3000, optimum antigen concentration was 1 µg and optimum serum dilution was 1:100. The overall sensitivity of ELISA was 84.78% (39 out of 46 true positives) and the specificity as 70% (7 out of 10 true negatives). The laboratory standardized ELISA was applied on chicken sera collected from different poultry farms located in and around Hyderabad. A total of 486 chicken sera (326 layers and 160 backyard chicken) were tested out of which 125 (119 commercial layers plus 6 backyard chicken) were found positive indicating 25.72% (36.50% in commercial layers and 3.75% in backyard chicken) of prevalence respectively. A significant difference existed between the incidences among layers and backyard chicken.