Evaluation of 'recombinant secretary antigens' based 'cocktail ELISA' for the diagnosis of Johne's disease and to differentiate non-infected, infected and vaccinated goats in combination with indigenous ELISA test

Johne's disease (JD) is the most widely distributed disease of the domestic livestock species world-wide. In the absence of control programs, bio-load of Mycobacterium aviumsubspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) had shown increasing trends in the Indian goat population over the years. Recently a therapeutic 'Indigenous vaccine' has been developed against JD in goat herds. Before initiating wide-scale use of 'indigenous vaccine' in the field as part of National Johne's disease control program, it is essential to have a test, which can differentiate non-infected, infected and vaccinated goats. In this study, a new 'cocktail ELISA' using six specific recombinant secretary proteins (RSPs) or culture filtrate proteins (CFPs) (MAP 1693c, MAP 2168c, MAP Mod D, MAP 85c, MAP Pep AN and MAP Pep AC) was developed first time in India. The RSPs based 'cocktail ELISA' was evaluated for the diagnosis of JD and c_ELISA along with i_ELISA, successfully differentiated non-infected, infected and vaccinated goats, thus facilitating the use of JD vaccine in the field for the control of the MAP infection in the goat population of the country.