Lawsonia intracellularis ELISA: A New Test at the ISU-VDL

Porcine Proliferative Enteropathy (PPE) is a common disease of swine which is caused by the intracellular bacterium, Lawsonia intracellularis. The performance of a recently available commercial ELISA for L. intracellularis was evaluated by comparison with an immuno-peroxidase monolayer assay (IPMA) and found to have at least 97% correlation. The same assay when conducted at different laboratories showed 100% agreement in results. Examination of serum samples from various cases submitted to the Iowa State University Veterinary Diagnostic laboratory indicated that 87% of the herds examined were sero-positive for L. intracellularis. Therefore, the Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) for Lawsonia intracellularis is a useful and reliable test which allows veterinary practitioners and producers to obtain same day results on swine serum samples submitted