A rapid assay for detecting antibody against Bluetongue virus with a latex agglutination test using recombinant VP7 antigen.

A latex agglutination test (LAT) for detecting antibody against Bluetongue virus (BTV) in ruminants was developed using latex beads coupled with recombinant VP7 protein. Compared with competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), the specificity and sensitivity of the LAT were 99.0% and 93.0%, respectively. There was excellent agreement between the results obtained by competitive ELISA and the LAT (kappa = 0.930). Because it is rapid and easy to use, the LAT could be used for BTV antibody detection, especially for screening many serum samples.