Development of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay based on viral antigen capture by anti-spike glycoprotein monoclonal antibody for detecting immunoglobulin A antibodies against porcine epidemic diarrhea virus in milk

BACKGROUND: Porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED), caused by PED virus (PEDV), is a severe enteric disease burdening the global swine industry in recent years. Especially, the mortality of PED in neonatal piglets approaches 100%. Maternal antibodies in milk, particularly immunoglobulin A (IgA) antibodies, are of great importance for protection neonatal suckling piglets against PEDV infection as passive lactogenic immunity. Therefore, appropriate detection methods are required for detecting PEDV IgA antibodies in milk. In the current study, we prepared monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against PEDV spike (S) glycoprotein. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was subsequently developed based on PEDV antigen capture by a specific anti-S mAb. RESULTS: The developed ELISA showed high sensitivity (the maximum dilution of milk samples up to 1:1280) and repeatability (coefficient of variation values < 10%) in detecting PEDV IgA antibody positive and negative milk samples. More importantly, the developed ELISA showed a high coincidence rate with a commercial ELISA kit for PEDV IgA antibody detection in clinical milk samples. CONCLUSIONS: The developed ELISA in the current study is applicable for PEDV IgA antibody detection in milk samples, which is beneficial for evaluating vaccination efficacies and neonate immune status against the virus. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12917-023-03605-4.