Short Communication
The influence of sample quality and ELISA kits on the occurrence of single reactors in serological diagnostics of foot-and-mouth disease and peste des petits ruminants
Ljubiša Veljović * ,
Dimitrije Glišić ,
Zorana Zurovac Sapundžić ,
Sofija Šolaja ,
Vesna Milićević

Mac Vet Rev 2025; 48 (1): 101 - 107

10.2478/macvetrev-2025-0019

Received: 04 October 2024

Received in revised form: 11 December 2024

Accepted: 03 February 2025

Available Online First: 04 March 2025

Published on: 15 March 2025

Correspondence: Ljubiša Veljović, ljubisa.veljovic@nivs.rs
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Abstract

Regular monitoring of susceptible animal species for specific antibodies is essential to achieve or to maintain disease free status for a country. The absence of certain disease in a country for many decades would yield expectation that collected animal serums would be negative for the presence of specific antibodies. However, large-scale tests often dismiss single reactor findings as poor sample quality. The current study aimed to investigate the effect of storage conditions of negative serum samples and the specificity of ELISA kits on the test results, focusing on two key livestock diseases: foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and peste des petits ruminants (PPR). Serum samples from bovine and ovine sources were stored at varying temperatures and durations, were subjected to freeze-thaw cycles, and were retested. Results were compared with zero-day tests which were considered to be truly accurate and negative. The quality of ELISA test results is less significantly affected by serum samples quality (affected by temperature, storage time, and freeze-thaw cycles) and occurrence of false positive single reactors, than the diagnostic specificity of different ELISA lots. This study challenges the conventional justification for single-reactor findings and underscores the importance of ELISA kit quality.

Keywords: ELISA, foot and mouth disease, sample quality, peste des petites ruminants, diagnostic specifity

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Copyright

© 2025 Veljović Lj. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declared that they have no potential lict of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

Citation Information

Macedonian Veterinary Review. Volume 48, Issue 1, Pages 101-107, e-ISSN 1857-7415, p-ISSN 1409-7621, DOI: 10.2478/macvetrev-2025-0019

The all content of the Macedonian Veterinary Review, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.