Bluetongue is an insect borne (Culicoides) viral disease of small ruminants. The virus blankets the globe with a wide serotypic variation, numbered from 1 to 28. In India 21 different serotypes have been reported to be circulating across the various agro-climatic zones of the country. Non-structural proteins (NSPs) of bluetongue virus have always remained ideal target for differentiation of infected from vaccinated animals. The current study is an extrapolation of our previous work where a novel fusion construct comprising of bluetongue viral segment NS1 and NS3 was successfully cloned, expressed, purified with an efficient strategy for its suitable implementation as a diagnostic antigen. In this study, the applicability of the fusion construct has been further evaluated and optimised for field applicability. The fusion construct used in an ELISA platform projected a relative diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of 98.1% and 95.5% respectively against a pre-established test panel. The rNS1-NS3 ELISA showed substantially good agreement with the commercial BTV antibody detection kit. Finally, the study brings together the diagnostic capability of two NSPs, which can be a handy tool for sero-surveillance of bluetongue.
Keywords: Bluetongue; Diagnosis; Indirect ELISA; Non-structural protein; Sero-surveillance.
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