Diagnosing Aleutian mink disease infection by a new fully automated ELISA or by counter current immunoelectrophoresis: A comparison of sensitivity and specificity

Aleutian disease (AD) is a severe disease characterized by hypergammaglobulinemia causing multiple symptoms such as acute renal failure, arteritis, reduced reproductive performance and pneumonia in mink. AD is caused by the parvovirus Aleutian mink disease virus (ADV) and diagnosed primarily based on ADV serology sometimes supplemented by organ PCR analysis. In Denmark, approximately 3.5-4 million serum samples are tested every year for the presence of anti ADV antibodies as part of a national eradication program. The present study compares the diagnostic performance of the two most commonly used assays for serological screening for Aleutian disease: counter current immunoelectrophoresis (CIEP) and ELISA. In total, 3810 mink were sampled in doublets and analyzed by CIEP and a newly developed fully automated ELISA. The results show that the two assays have a comparable diagnostic performance with the ELISA having a higher sensitivity but lower specificity than the CIEP assay. The ELISA has been approved by the Danish authorities for diagnosing Aleutian disease in mink.