Duck circovirus was a newly discovered pathogen that causing ducks immunosuppression in recent years, but it can not been cultured in vitro that limited its depth study. In the present study, the Cap gene that defect the nuclear localization signal (NLS) of DuCV was amplified and connected to the express vector pET-32a (+), to express the recombinant Cap protein in the bacterium Escherichia coli Rosetta. The recombinant Cap protein was purified and an indirect ELISA method was developed based on the recombinant Cap protein. The results showed that the truncated Cap gene was 567 bp and cloned into pET-32a (+) vector successfully. The recombinant Cap protein was expressed as inclusion bodies. The results of optimization for indirect ELISA revealed that the optimal antigen and serum dilutions were selected to be 4 μg/well and 1:40, respectively; the coating condition was 37°C for 1 h and 4°C overnight; the blocking time in 1% BSA was 1 h at 37°C and the second antibody dilution was 1:800, the cut-off value was 0.352. Known anti-sera samples of other duck common pathogens were tested by the developed ELISA and the results showed it was specific for DuCV anti-sera detection. The sensitivity of indirect ELISA reached 1:2560, and the coefficient of variation between intra-assay and inter-assay were less than 10%. Compared the PCR and indirect ELISA methods, the positive compliance rate was 95.6% for detected 59 duck samples.
Keywords: Duck circovirus; cap gene; indirect ELISA; prokaryotic expression.