Comparative detection of bovine herpesvirus-1 using antigen ELISA, immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence methods in cattle with pneumonia

Abstract

This study was conducted to detect the prevalence and presence of bovine herpesvirus-1 (BoHV-1) using immunohistochemistry(IHC), immunofluorescence (IF) and antigen enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in the lung samples of cattle (n = 1023). Inaddition, three methods were compared using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and chi-square test (χ2 test), and their usabilitywere evaluated in laboratory conditions. Macroscopically, pneumonia was seen in 120 of the lung tissue samples (11.73%). Basedon the microscopic examinations, the pneumonia types were classified as catarrhal-suppurative bronchopneumonia (6.7%), fibrinousbronchopneumonia (5%), interstitial pneumonia (84.1%), and granulomatous pneumonia (4.2%). The IHC, IF and antigen ELISApositivity were 48.33%, 50.83%, and 29.9%, respectively. Considering IF as a gold standard, IHC had more acceptable sensitivity andspecificity than antigen ELISA. In conclusion, it has been observed that when IF method is not available, IHC is more reliable thanantigen ELISA in the diagnosis of BoHV-1.