Establishment of a dot-ELISA for detection of antibody against Dirofilaria immitis

In order to rapidly diagnose dirofilariasis in dog,a dot-ELISA for detection of antibody against Dirofilaria immitis was established using raw antigen extracted from D.immitis and evaluated by interruption test,cross-reaction test,reproducibility test,agar diffusion test and parallel control test.There was no cross-reaction of the prepared raw antigen with the positive sera from dogs infected respectively with Ancylostoma caninum,Toxocara canis and Demodex canis and the highest titer of the positive serum from dogs infected with D.immitis was 1∶1024 detected by the dot-ELISA,which had good reproducibi-lity.The sensitivity of the dot-ELISA was 2048 times and 48 times higher than that of the agar diffusion test and Canine Heartworm Antigen Test Kit made by American IDEXX Laboratory,respectively.