Seroprevalence of Getah virus in Pigs in Eastern China Determined with a Recombinant E2 Protein-Based Indirect ELISA

Abstract

Getah virus (GETV), in the genus Alphavirus and the family Togaviridae, has been detected throughout the world. GETV causes high morbidity and mortality in newborn piglets, entailing serious economic losses. Therefore, the experimental work on GETV detection is necessary. However, due to the influence of a variety of unavoidable factors, the ELISA test for the primary screening of animal diseases has low accuracy in detection results. Therefore, we optimized a recombinant E2 (rE2) protein-based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the detection of GETV antibodies in pig serum. The E2 protein was successfully expressed and purified with SDS-PAGE. A Western blotting analysis of sera from infected pigs showed strong reaction with a viral antigen of ~46 KDa corresponding to the E2 glycoproteins. By using chessboard titration and comparing the P/N values, we found that the optimal concentration of coated antigen was found to be 24.5 μg/mL, and the optimal dilution of serum specimens was 1:100. The best working dilution of the horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-conjugated goat anti-pig immunoglobulin (IgG) was 1:5000. The optimal coating conditions were 12 h at 4 °C. The optimal incubation conditions for serum specimens, blocking, and reaction with the secondary antibody were all 1 h at 37 °C. We also investigated the seroprevalence of GETV in 133 serum specimens collected in Eastern China, and 37.59% of the samples tested positive for anti-GETV IgG antibodies, indicating that the seroprevalence of GETV is high in pig populations in China. The seroprevalence was significantly lower in spring (April; 24.24%, 16/66) than in autumn (October; 50.75%, 34/67), which suggested that the presence of anti-GETV antibodies in pigs was seasonal. In conclusion, we improved an rE2 ELISA that detected pig antibodies against GETV after experimental and natural infections. This should be useful in the diagnosis and surveillance of GETV infections.