Evaluation of a commercial ELISA for diagnosis of paratuberculosis in cattle.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate sensitivity and specificity of a new ELISA for antibodies against Mycobacterium avium subsp paratuberculosis. DESIGN: Cross-sectional observational survey. SAMPLE POPULATION: Serum samples from 590 cattle that were infected with M avium subsp paratuberculosis and 723 cattle that were not infected. PROCEDURE: Serum samples were tested by use of an ELISA for antibodies against M avium subsp paratuberculosis. RESULTS: Sensitivity of the test varied from 15.4 to 88.1%, depending on the clinical stage and bacterial shedding status of the cattle. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Results obtained with use of the new ELISA agreed favorably with those of a previous ELISA. Practitioners must be aware of variability in the sensitivity of the test, which depends on the clinical and shedding status of the cattle, because this may affect interpretation of test results.

Prevalence of antibodies against Mycobacterium avium subsp paratuberculosis among beef cow-calf herds.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the prevalence of Mycobacterium avium subsp paratuberculosis infection among cows on beef operations in the United States. DESIGN: Cross-sectional seroprevalence study. Sample Population-A convenience sample of 380 herds in 21 states. PROCEDURES: Serum samples were obtained from 10,371 cows and tested for antibodies to M avium subsp paratuberculosis with a commercial ELISA. Producers were interviewed to collect data on herd management practices. RESULTS: 30 (7.9%) herds had 1 or more animals for which results of the ELISA were positive; 40 (0.4%) of the individual cow samples yielded positive results. None of the herd management practices studied were found to be associated with whether any animals in the herd would be positive for antibodies to M avium subsp paratuberculosis. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Results suggest that the prevalence of antibodies to M avium subsp paratuberculosis among beef cows in the United States is low. Herds with seropositive animals were widely distributed geographically.

Characterization of triple reassortant H1N1 influenza A viruses from swine in Ohio.

An H1N1 influenza A virus, A/swine/Ohio/24366/07, was isolated from pigs in an Ohio county fair. Twenty-six people who came in contact with the infected pigs developed respiratory disease and two of these people were laboratory confirmed as H1N1 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The A/swine/Ohio/24366/07 virus we isolated from swine was shown at the CDC to have 100% identical genome sequence to the human virus associated with the county fair. This prompted us to characterize three swine and two human origin H1N1 influenza A viruses isolated at different time points in the State of Ohio. The three swine viruses were shown to be triple reassortant viruses harboring genes of human (PB1), swine (HA, NA, NP, M, and NS), and avian (PB2 and PA) lineage viruses. Although viruses evaluated in this study were isolated during a short time interval (3 years), genetic drift was observed within the HA and NA genes, including changes at the receptor binding and antigenic sites of HA1 protein. Nevertheless, all viruses exhibited antigenic similarity as evaluated with hemagglutination inhibition and virus neutralizing tests. Internal genes were similar to other reassortant viruses of various subtypes currently circulating in the United States. Interestingly, two of the swine viruses including the 2007 isolate replicated well in human airway epithelial cells, however, another virus isolated in 2006 showed very little replication.