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The main objectives of this project were to evaluate commercially available Newcastle disease virus (NDV) enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits and determine their suitability as an alternative to the haemagglutination inhibition (HI) test for evaluating post-vaccination antibody responses in poultry.

Currently, the national Newcastle Disease Management Plan (NDMP) requires that post-vaccination antibody titres are assessed using the HI test. However, ELISAs may be easier and more efficient to perform. Representative post-vaccination field sera were used to compare three ELISA kits against the HI test. Although the ELISAs were able to detect antibodies in sera corresponding to a wide range of HI titres, their ability to correctly determine the predicted immune status of birds following a single dose of live V4 vaccine was variable. In contrast, there was 100% agreement between the ELISAs and the HI test when predicting the immune status of a flock when birds had received two or three doses of vaccine (live V4 followed by inactivated vaccine).

Inclusion of ELISA to support post-vaccination monitoring, where suitably endorsed by the NDMP Steering Committee, would provide an alternative and convenient method for monitoring NDV antibody titres in vaccinated flocks, and would enable increased testing efficiency and testing throughput across the poultry industry.