Differentiation of classical swine fever virus infection from CP7_E2alf marker vaccination by a multiplex microsphere immunoassay

Classical swine fever (CSF) is a highly contagious viral disease of pigs with tremendous socio-economic impact. Vaccines are available for disease control. However, most industrialized countries are implementing stamping out strategies to eliminate the disease to avoid trade restrictions. These restrictions could be avoided through the use of marker vaccines such as CP7_E2alf. Marker vaccines have to be accompanied by reliable and robust discriminatory assays. In this context, a multiplex microsphere immunoassay for serological differentiation of the CSFV infected from CP7_E2alf vaccinated animals (DIVA) was developed. To this end, three viral proteins, namely CSFV E2, CSFV Erns and BVDV E2, were produced in insect cells using a baculovirus expression system and used as antigens in a microsphere immunoassay, which was further evaluated by testing a large panel of pig sera and compared to a well characterized commercial CSFV E2 Antibody ELISA and a “test” version of an improved CSFV Erns antibody ELISA. Under a cut-off median fluorescence intensity value of 5522, the multiplex microsphere immunoassay had a sensitivity of 98.5% and specificity of 98.9% for detection of antibodies against CSFV E2. Both the microsphere immunoassay and the CSFV Erns ELISA gave the same results for 155 out of 187 samples (82.8%) for the presence of CSFV Erns antibodies. This novel multiplex immunoassay is a valuable tool for measuring and differentiating immune responses to vaccination and/or infection in animals.