Japanese Encephalitis –IgM ELISA Kit for Swine
Background:
Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is one of the major causes of encephalitis in children and it is estimated that annually JEV causes 50,000-67,900 cases leading to 10,000-20,000 deaths globally. Increasing global population, novel agricultural practices and increasing global temperature have facilitated the perpetuation of JE vector, Culex spp., thereby, increasing the human JE cases. Swine, being an amplifier host of JEV, plays an important role in its epidemiology. Therefore, early detection of either JEV or antibodies against JEV in swine is a feasible alternative for initiating necessary measures to prevent the spread of infection to humans. However, since the viraemia lasts for a brief period of 2-3 days, the detection of JEV in swine is not always successful, and hence, the detection of antibodies against JEV using ELISA is the best alternative.
Technology Details:
Earlier, IgG ELISA kit for sero-surveillance of JE in swine was developed by ICAR-IVRI and has been extensively used to screen the swine serum samples from various parts of our country. Though the IgG ELISA is good for surveillance but by using this kit we cannot estimate that JE virus infection is active or not in the swine population of the area under surveillance as IgG antibodies survive for several months in swine serum unlike IgM antibodies which survive for less than one month. Moreover, none of the JE IgM ELISA kits for swine are manufactured indigenously and the high cost of the imported kits is a huge economical burden, especially for developing countries.
The kit can be readily incorporated in the JE control program of the Govt. of India for surveillance of active JE virus infection in swine population to forecast JE disease in humans. The kit developed by ICAR-IVRI is recombinant protein-based and does not involve the handling of live JE virus Our kit is cost-effective as compared to existing commercial kits which are being imported.