Technology Details:
Equine influenza commonly known as ‘Horse Flu’ is a viral disease of horses. It is an acute viral highly contagious respiratory disease of equines (horses, ponies, mules and donkeys) which spreads very fast. Equine Influenza virus (EIV) is known to cause severe clinical disease in equines, characterized by pyrexia, dyspnoea, dry hacking cough, serous nasal discharge that becomes mucopurulent due to secondary bacterial infections and loss of appetite. The disease is caused by Influenza A virus belonging to family Orthomyxoviridae. Belonging to two subtypes H3N8 and H7N7, however, EI outbreaks due to H7N7 subtype have not been reported for more than four decades. Currently two strains of H3N8 viz. Clade 1 and clade 2 of Florida sublinage have been circulating globally.:
Various diagnostic assays are utilized for its detection which include serological assays, nucleic acid detection assays (RT-PCR and qRT-PCR), virus isolation etc. These assays are either time consuming or require good laboratory settings. We at ICAR-NRCE have developed a monoclonal antibody based enzyme immunoassay which can detect H3N8 antigen across various lineages at very low detection levels (0.25HA units). The assay is easy to perform and available in form of kit which can be stored at 40C for one year.