Table 1.

Well-established CSF diagnostic methods and their application.

Method	Application	Advantages	Disadvantages
Virus Isolation	Confirmation of clinical cases; Making virus collections; May be used for individual animal freedom from infection prior to movement	“reference standard"; Very sensitive; Indicates active infection	Work intensive and time consuming; Requires specialized microscope and expertise
FAT 1	Confirmation of clinical cases	Quick and direct visualization of antigens in tissue	Requires specialized equipment, expertise, and confirmatory test
Antigen-capture ELISA 2	Population infection-free status; May be used for confirmation of clinical cases	Fast, does not require specialized equipment and suitable for herd screening	Low sensitivity; Cross-reactivity with other Pestiviruses
RT-PCR 3	Confirmation of clinical cases; Prevalence of infection surveillance; May be used for population or individual animal freedom from infection prior to movement	Fast, sensitive, and specific	Specialized equipment; Possibility for false negative results due to sample degradation
VNT 4	Individual animal infection-free status prior to movement; Prevalence of infection-surveillance; Immune status in individual animals or populations post-vaccination; Confirmation of clinical cases; May be used for population freedom from infection	Gold standard for sensitivity and specificity	Work intensive and time consuming; Requires specialized microscope and expertise
Antibody ELISA	Population freedom from infection; Individual animal freedom from infection prior to movement; Prevalence of infection-surveillance; Immune status in individual animals or populations post-vaccination	Fast, does not require specialized equipment and suitable for herd screening	Cross-reactivity with other Pestiviruses

Note: Table adapted from Table 1 in 2019 OIE Terrestrial Manual [17]; ¹ Fluorescent antibody test; ² Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; ³ Reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction; ⁴ Virus neutralization test.