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. 2017 Aug 8;15(8):e04955. doi: 10.2903/j.efsa.2017.4955

Table 6.

Test methods available for the diagnosis of WNV and their purpose (Source: (OIE, 2013))

Method Purpose
Population freedom from infection Individual animal freedom from infection Confirmation of clinical signs Prevalence of infection Immune status in individual animals or populations post‐vaccination
Agent identification
Nested RT‐PCR ** **
Real‐time RT‐PCR ** **
Isolation in tissue culture ** **
Detection of immune response
IGM capture ELISA **
Plague reduction neutralisation ** * ** **
Serum neutralisation ** * ** **
Immunohistochemistry *

*** = recommended method; ** = suitable method; * = may be used in some situations, but cost reliability, or other factors severity limits its application; – = not appropriate for this purpose.

Although not all of the rests listed as category *** have undergone formal validation, their routine nature and the fact that they have been used widely without dubious results, makes them acceptable.

RT‐PCR: reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction; IgM: immunoglobulin M; ELISA: enzyme linked immunosorbent assay.