Validation of a competitive ELISA and a virus neutralization test for the detection and confirmation of antibodies to Senecavirus A in swine sera

Senecavirus A (SVA; family Picornaviridae) is a nonenveloped, single-stranded RNA virus associated with idiopathic vesicular disease (IVD) in swine. SVA was detected in pigs with IVD in Brazil, United States, Canada, and China in 2015, triggering the need to develop and/or validate serologic assays for SVA. Our objective was to fully validate a previously developed competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (cELISA) as a screening test for antibodies to SVA. Additional objectives included the development and validation of a virus neutralization test (VNT) as a confirmatory test for SVA antibody detection, and the comparison of the cELISA, VNT, and an existing immunofluorescent antibody test (IFAT) for the detection of SVA antibodies in serial bleeds from SVA outbreaks. The diagnostic specificity and sensitivity were 98.2% (97.2–98.9%) and 96.9% (94.5–98.4%) for the cELISA, and 99.6% (99.0–99.9%) and 98.2% (95.8–99.4%) for the VNT, respectively. There was strong agreement among cELISA, VNT, and IFAT when compared based on kappa coefficient. Based on these performance characteristics, these tests are considered suitable for serologic detection of SVA in pigs.