Comparison of the efficacy of Sandwich ELISA with PCR for detecting Peste des Petits Ruminants in sheep and goats

The primary objective of this study was to investigate the diagnostic performance of sandwich ELISA compared to the RT-PCR technique in detecting Peste des Petits Ruminants (PPR) infection in clinically diseased sheep and goats. A secondary objective was to compare the results of N-gene- and F-gene-based RT-PCR in identifying PPR infection. Blood samples and nasal swabs were collected from 400 animals (335 sheep and 65 goats) exhibiting clinical signs of PPR in different flocks in Nineveh governorate, Iraq. Serum samples were tested using s-ELISA, whereas nasal swabs were tested using RT-PCR. The analysis indicated that s-ELISA, N-gene RT-PPR, and F-gene RT-PCR had 43 %, 40 %, and 34 %, respectively, positive results. The diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and diagnostic odds ratio of s-ELISA were 0.93, 94 %, 92 %, 88 %, 96 %, and 185, respectively. A total of 25 (16 %) samples positive with N-gene RT-PCR tested negative with F-gene RT-PCR. In conclusion, although we performed RT-PCR using nasal swabs and s-ELISA using serum samples, s-ELISA can be a practical test alternative to RT-PCR for detecting PPR infection in serum samples from sheep and goats observing clinical signs of the disease.