Development and application of a novel ELISA for detecting antibodies against group I fowl adenoviruses

Since 2015, outbreaks of hepatitis-hydropericardium syndrome (HPS) caused by a novel genotype of fowl adenovirus 4 (FAdV-4) infection have created serious economic losses in China. Given that other serotypes of hypervirulent FAdVs have also been reported in poultry around the world, a common ELISA for all serotypes within the group I fowl adenoviruses (FAdV-I) is urgently needed, especially for clinical epidemic serotypes. In this study, we used high purity and concentration virions of FAdV-4 and developed a common ELISA for detecting antibodies against 12 FAdV-I serotypes. The developed ELISA was able to distinguish between antibodies against FAdV-I, FAdV-III, and other heterologous viruses without any cross-reaction. Furthermore, the ELISA showed higher sensitivity than the FAdV-1-based ELISA to the novel FAdV-4 found in China. Moreover, since there are no commercial vaccines against FAdVs in China, the ELISA was applied to detect sera samples from specific pathogen-free chickens inoculated with inactivated FAdV-1, FAdV-4, and FAdV-8a. The assay showed high sensitivities for all three detected serotypes within FAdV-I. In conclusion, a novel, common ELISA for FAdV-I was developed in this study and could be a powerful tool for seroepidemiological investigations and FAdVs vaccine development.