Figure 7. Serology of SARS-CoV-2 infected deer.

Detection of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein (A), and the receptor binding domain (B) by indirect ELISA tests. The cut-off was determined by averaging the OD of negative serum + 3X the standard deviation as indicated by the dotted line. All samples with resulting OD values above this cut-off were considered positive. (C) Virus neutralizing antibodies detected in serum are shown as log2 of the reciprocal of the neutralization serum dilution. The cut-off of 1:40 is indicated by the dotted line. A-C: Negative controls were deer sera (n=4) collected from deer enrolled in a previous epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus vaccine study (36) and pre-challenge sera (−3 DPC) from the six deer enrolled in this study. (D) Sera from principal infected (n=4) and sentinel deer (n=2) were tested against the bovine coronavirus (BCoV) spike protein using an indirect ELISA; both, positive (C+) and negative (C−) bovine control sera were included. The cut-off was determined by averaging the OD of negative serum + 3X the standard deviation as indicated by the dotted line. A-D: Mean with standard error are shown.