Heat treatment of the blood serum samples as a method of increasing the sensitivity of ELISA test during the diagnosis of bovine leucosis

The present study was conducted with an aim of defining the effect of heat treatment of the blood serum samples on the sensitivity of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test during the diagnosis bovine leucosis. The research results prove that after precipitating circulating immune complexes from the pool of the blood serum samples of cattle, the titers of antileukemic antibodies in ELISA did not change and were equal to the antibody titers in original sample. Dissociation of these immune complexes with prior incubation of the samples at 60оС for 1 hour resulted to the increase of the «unbound» antileukemic antibody titers in the samples. It was established that heat treatment of the blood serum samples can be considered as a factor of increasing the sensitivity of ELISA test in the diagnosis of bovine leucosis. Incubation of the blood serum samples of cattle at 60оС for 1 hour resulted to the increase of unbound antileukemic antibodies which was proved by the increase in the number of positive samples in ELISA test. The optical density (OD) of some microtiter plate wells of both negative and positive reacting samples after undergoing heat treatment practically remained intact.