Avidin-Biotin recombinant antigen capture ELISA for the detection of peste des petits ruminants virus in the clinical specimens of sheep and goats

•rPPRV-NPN-specific polyclonal antibodies based ABrAC ELISA developed for surveillance of PPR.•Assay is rapid, sensitive, and specific for the detection of the PPR virus/antigens in the clinical specimens.•rPPRV-NPN and its polyclonal antibodies could be the sustainable source of safe diagnostic reagents in ABrAC ELISA. This study describes the development of Avidin-Biotin recombinant Antigen Capture ELISA (ABrAC ELISA) for the detection of the peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV) antigens in the clinical specimens of sheep and goats. The assay uses the truncated recombinant PPRV N-terminal immunogenic region of nucleoprotein (rPPRV-NPN) as a reference positive antigen and its polyclonal antibodies as capture/detective antibodies and the rabbit PPRV polyclonal antibodies as coating antibodies. The cut-off value was determined as double times the mean reactivity of blank control based on the reactivity of the PPR confirmed negative and positive control panel samples. On assessing the specificity with the related differential diagnosis of the disease-causing viruses and bacteria, the assay showed specific detective reactivity to PPRV. Further, on evaluation using clinical specimens (n-274) of sheep and goats, the assay showed that the relative diagnostic sensitivity of 86.49 % (95 % confidence interval (CI): 71.23–95.46 %) and diagnostic specificity of 96.20 % (95 % CI: 92.91–98.25 %) against PPRV nucleoprotein-specific monoclonal antibody-based sandwich-ELISA (PPR s-ELISA) kit, with an accuracy of 94.89 % (95 % CI: 91.58–97.18 %) and Cohen's Kappa value of 0.791 + 0.055 SE (95 % CI: 0.68−0.90) with substantial agreements. The ABrAC-ELISA is an alternative method of an immunoassay for the rapid, sensitive, and specific detection of the PPRV antigens m the clinical specimens of sheep and goats for surveillance or diagnosis of PPR. This study also shows that the rPPRV-NPN and its specific polyclonal antibodies could be the sustainable source of safe diagnostic reagents without the need to handle the infectious virus during the eradication and post-eradication phases in endemic countries like India or PPR non-endemic countries.