Development of latex agglutination test for rapid detection of antibodies against Bovine herpesvirus 1 and Bovine herpesvirus 5 in cattle.

A latex agglutination test (LAT) based on sensitized polystyrene beads with inactivated Bovine herpesvirus 1 (BHV-1) particles was developed to detect serum antibodies against BHV-1 and Bovine herpesvirus 5 (BHV-5). Compared with a virus neutralization test using 252 serum samples, the sensitivity and specificity were 94.7% and 97.5%, respectively. Finally, 512 clinical serum samples from 3 major cattle-breeding provinces were monitored, and the overall positive rate was 34.57% (95% confidence interval: 30.45-38.69%). The results suggest that LAT has the potential to be a rapid method for the diagnosis of BHV-1 and BHV-5 infection in cattle herds.