Comparison of the use of secretory and somatic antigens in an ELISA for the serodiagnosis of hypodermosis.

An antigen was prepared from metabolic products which were produced by maintaining first instar larvae of Hypoderma lineatum in RPMI tissue culture medium for 48 h. Three major proteins were identified in the secretory products and were characterised in terms of their molecular weights and iso-electric points. The antigen compared favourably with a soluble extract of larvae when used in an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) against a panel of control sera and 2000 bovine sera collected from farms in Andalucia, Spain.