Читать книгу Infectious Disease Management in Animal Shelters - Группа авторов - Страница 111

Serology is the measurement of antigen–antibody interactions for diagnostic purposes and is commonly used for the diagnosis of infectious disease as well as risk management during a disease outbreak. In some cases, serology is used to determine whether an animal has been previously exposed to an infectious agent, vaccinated, or actively infected. Primary binding tests are those that directly measure the binding of antigen to antibody, usually in a qualitative form (i.e. positive or negative). Examples of these include ELISAs and lateral flow assays, immunofluorescent antibody (IFA) tests, Western blotting, and immunohistochemistry. Secondary binding tests measure the results of antigen–antibody interaction in vitro and typically provide a quantitative result in the form of a titer; examples include hemagglutination inhibition (HI) and complement fixation (CF). Tertiary testing methods, such as serum neutralization, measure the protective effect of antibodies in live organisms and also provide results in the form of titers. A final category of serologic tests is the molecular assay that detects nucleic acids. These tests, which can be both qualitative and quantitative, include PCR, reverse transcriptase PCR, and real‐time PCR (Tizard 2013).