Peste Des Petits Ruminants Virus (Pprv) : Comparative Analysis of Antigen Detection Methods

Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is an acute and highly contagious viral disease of small ruminants such as goats and sheep. In Pakistan it causes economic losses of Rs. 20.5 billion annually. The diagnosis of PPR infection in sheep and goats populations can be synergistically strengthened with detection of antigen in clinical samples of susceptible population. In present study the PPR virus antigen detection was investigated and compared in clinical samples of sheep and goats by Haemagglutination (HA) test, Agar gel immunodiffusion (AGID) and Immunocapture ELISA (IC-ELISA). The viral antigen was detected from 8.95% of the samples tested by AGID, 20.9% tested by HA test and 31.25% tested by IC-ELISA. Kappa statistics scores for HA versus AGID, IC-ELISA versus AGID and HA versus IC-ELISA were 0.45 (95% Confidence Interval CI 0.158-0.742), 0.359 (95% CI 0.01-0.69) and 0.035 (95% CI -0.309-0.694) respectively which indicate a non-significant agreement between the tests. The results of chi-square for the three tests (HA, AGID and IC-ELISA) indicated these tests are highly significance i.e. locations and tests results are associated with each other.