Fisheries, Subsistence, and Habitat
Publications Searchable Database
Search Again| Division: | Commercial Fish |
| Title: | Comparison of the enzyme- linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and the fluorescent antibody test (FAT) for measuring the prevalences and levels of Renibacterium salmoninarum in wild and hatchery stocks of salmonid fishes in Alaska, USA. |
| Author: | Meyers, T. R., S. Short, C. Farrington, K. Lipson, H. J. Geiger, and R. Gates. |
| Year: | 1993 |
| Report ID: | Diseases of Aquatic Organisms 16:181-189. |
| Abstract: | The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and the fluorescent antibody test (FAT) were compared for their sensitivity in detection of Renibacterjum salmoninarum (Rs) in kidney tissues of Alaskan salmonids. The ELISA appeared to be more sensitive in detecting Rs infections. The FAT did not detect Rs in 80% of the ELISA-positive samples but was positive for Rs in 28%, of the samples that were ELISA-negative. This contradiction may have been due to low-level washover of Rs cells from smears containing large numbers of Rs cells when slides containing multiple samples were rinsed in a common vessel during the FAT procedures. The FAT routinely did not detect infections in Rs-positive fish, the tissues of which produced a mean ELISA optical density value 50.173, and inconsistently detected infections in fish with ELISA values > 0.173 but < 0.978. The 0.978 optical density was the mean ELISA value at which the FAT routinely detected Rs-positive fish. Based on the ELlSA results, Rs occurred in only 9% of the Alaskan Pacific salmon tested in both wild (85%) and hatchery (81%) stocks. The very high stock prevalences and levels of Rs antigen detected in wild trout Oncorhynchus char Salvelinus spp., and grayling Thymallus arcticus having no clinical signs of bacterial kidney disease suggest these species may be somewhat resistant hosts and important freshwater reservoirs of Rs. |
| Keywords: | None. |