Equine respiratory disease is no fun for horse or owner, and it can have a significant economic impact on the performance horse industry in both cost of treatment and in training and performance days lost.

Equine rhinitis B virus (ERBV) is a respiratory disease that affects horses worldwide, but researchers are still working to fully understand it. Current tools for detecting the virus are limited and usually concentrate only on one of the three known serotypes of the virus.

In an effort to learn more about ERBV and find a more effective and efficient diagnostic tool, researchers from the University of Melbourne, in Australia, set out to develop an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) that detects antibodies to each of the three known serotypes of ERBV.

“When the (ERBV) virus infects, the immune system of the host usually responds by making antibodies to the outer surface of the virus’ protein shell,” relayed Carol Hartley, PhD, research fellow at the university’s Center for Equine Infectious Disease