A comparison of diagnostic tests for Hairy Shaker disease

From 1982 to 1988, the virus culture interference assay was used by the Animal Health Laboratory Network as a diagnostic test for hairy shaker (HS) disease (known as border disease in the United Kingdom). However, this assay is slow and relatively expensive, and in some studies of the prevalence of HS disease it gave inexplicably high rates of 28-33% compared with other studies in which the prevalence rates were 1-8% (G. Horner, pers. comm.). The present project was designed to compare the virus culture interference test with an immunoperoxidase (IPX) method and an antigen capture ELISA for the detection of HS virus. In the 1990 sheep abortion season at the Invermay Animal Health Laboratory, 51 freshly dead foetuses and neonatal lambs from 125 days gestation to 2 days of age were selected…