2020 Volume 73 Issue 7 Pages 369-373
Early detection of cattle infected with bovine leukemia virus (BLV) through periodic testing is one of the most important measures for the prevention of BLV spread on farms. However, repeated blood sampling causes stress for the animals and increases labor costs. In this study, to resolve these issues, we established an ELISA for anti-BLV antibody detection with the undiluted whey portion of milk instead of sera by using the commercial serum ELISA (sELISA) kit available in Japan. The milk ELISA (mELISA) can detect anti-BLV antibodies from the milk samples of infected cattle regardless of differences in sampling time and lactation periods of sampling animals. The mELISA were also validated by the sELISA with sera from the same cow tested. The results of the two tests matched for all samples. In addition, we tested seven bulk milk samples collected from seven BLV-infected farms. Although further validation of the sensitivity and specificity of mELISA using bulk milk samples is required, all samples tested positive for mELISA in this study. Application of our established mELISA will reduce the stress on the animals and the labor costs in the periodic testing for BLV infected cattle.
