Evaluation of a caprine arthritis-encephalitis virus/maedi-visna virus indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in the serological diagnosis of ovine progressive pneumonia virus in U.S. sheep.

A caprine arthritis-encephalitis virus (CAEV)/maedi-visna virus (MVV) indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (iELISA) was validated with samples from U.S. sheep and by the use of radioimmunoprecipitation as the standard for comparison. The sensitivity and the specificity were 86.0% (+ or - 5.8%) and 95.9% (+ or - 2.9%), respectively. The iELISA format and phylogenetic differences based on the MVV gag sequence contribute to the reduced sensitivity.