Development and evaluation of the rVP-ELISA for detection of antibodies against porcine parvovirus

The gene encoding the VP2 protein of porcine parvovirus (PPV) was expressed in an insect-baculovirus system. The recombinant (r) VP2 was similar antigenically/functionally to the native capsid protein as demonstrated by hemagglutination (HA), Western blotting using PPV positive sera. The purified rVP2 proteins were used as coating antigen to establish a rVP-ELISA method for detection of PPV positive and negative sera from pigs. The optimal operating conditions of the rVP-ELISA were: the concentration of rVP2 proteins coated on the wells was 2 μg/mL; the diluted concentration of serum was 1: 150 and that of the enzyme-labeled antibody was 1: 6000. A total of 596 sera were detected by this assay, and the average positive rate was 87%. Compared with France LSI kit, the result showed that the coincidence rate was 96.7%. In conclusion, the rVP2-ELISA is a sensitive and specific method for detecting antibodies against PPV.