Lubisi, Baratang AlisonNdouvhada, Phumudzo N.Neiffer, DonaldPenrith, Mary-LouiseSibanda, Donald RayBastos, Armanda D.S.2019-12-022019-12-022019-03-25Lubisi, B.A., Ndouvhada, P.N., Neiffer, D. et al. 2019, 'Evaluation of a virus neutralisation test for detection of Rift Valley fever antibodies in Suid Sera', Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease, vol. 4, art. 52, pp. 1-9.2414-6366 (online)10.3390/tropicalmed4010052http://hdl.handle.net/2263/72448Rift Valley fever (RVF) is a vector-borne viral disease of ruminants mainly, and man, characterized by abortions and neonatal deaths in animals and flu-like to more severe symptoms that can result in death in humans. The disease is endemic in Africa, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, and outbreaks occur following proliferation of RVF virus (RVFV) infected mosquito vectors. Vertebrate animal maintenance hosts of RVFV, which serve as a source of virus during inter-epidemic periods remain unknown, with wild and domestic suids being largely overlooked. To address this, we evaluated the virus neutralization test (VNT) for RVF antibody detection in suid sera, as a first step in assessing the role of suids in the epidemiology of RVF in Africa. Testing of experimental and field sera from domestic pigs and warthogs with a commercial RVF competitive antibody ELISA, served as a reference standard against which the VNT results were compared. Results indicate that VNT can detect anti-RVFV antibodies within three days post-infection, has an analytical specificity of 100% and diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of 80% and 97%, respectively. Although labour-intensive and time-consuming, the VNT proved suitable for screening suid sera and plasma for presence of RVFV antibodies in viraemic and recovered animals.en© 2019 by the authors. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.Inter-epidemic periodDomestic pig (Sus domesticus)Rift Valley fever virus (RVFV)Rift Valley fever (RVF)Virus neutralization test (VNT)Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)Article