Indirect ELISA for the detection of antibodies in sera of sturgeon fish species

Herpesvirus disease of Siberian sturgeon, caused by SbSHV, is especially severe in the industrial populations. The commonly used method for its specific diagnostics has a sufficient disadvantage because of SbSHV active reproduction in vivo when the water temperature is in the range of 10-18 °С, and therefore, can be applied mainly in spring and sometimes in autumn. At other seasons the amount of the virus in the fish tissues reduces so that it becomes nearly unrevealable. We have developed a method for retrospective diagnosis of herpesvirus disease of Siberian sturgeon using indirect ELISA version. Experimental data on ELISA development for the detection of antibodies against Siberian sturgeon herpesvirus are presented. Procedures for preparing the ELISA specific reagents are described, including the virus reproduction in cell culture, isolation of IgM-like immu-noglobulin from hyperimmune antisera of sturgeon, etc. The effectiveness of the proposed method and the reaction of neutralization was compared. It is shown, that by elaborated method the SbSHV antibodies can be detected both in the Siberian sturgeon, and among closely related species of sturgeon, or their hybrids.