{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,30]],"date-time":"2026-09-30T20:36:59Z","timestamp":1790800619819,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":44,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,15]],"date-time":"2024-05-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1715731200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Medical Biodefense Research Program of the Bundeswehr Medical Service"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Viruses"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The West Nile Virus (WNV), a member of the family Flaviviridae, is an emerging mosquito-borne flavivirus causing potentially severe infections in humans and animals involving the central nervous system (CNS). Due to its emerging tendency, WNV now occurs in many areas where other flaviviruses are co-occurring. Cross-reactive antibodies with flavivirus infections or vaccination (e.g., tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV), Usutu virus (USUV), yellow fever virus (YFV), dengue virus (DENV), Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV)) therefore remain a major challenge in diagnosing flavivirus infections. Virus neutralization tests are considered as reference tests for the detection of specific flavivirus antibodies, but are elaborate, time-consuming and need biosafety level 3 facilities. A simple and straightforward assay for the differentiation and detection of specific WNV IgG antibodies for the routine laboratory is urgently needed. In this study, we compared two commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (anti-IgG WNV ELISA and anti-NS1-IgG WNV), a commercially available indirect immunofluorescence assay, and a newly developed in-house ELISA for the detection of WNV-NS1-IgG antibodies. All four tests were compared to an in-house NT to determine both the sensitivity and specificity of the four test systems. None of the assays could match the specificity of the NT, although the two NS1-IgG based ELISAs were very close to the specificity of the NT at 97.3% and 94.6%. The in-house WNV-NS1-IgG ELISA had the best performance regarding sensitivity and specificity. The specificities of the ELISA assays and the indirect immunofluorescence assays could not meet the necessary specificity and\/or sensitivity.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/v16050788","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,16]],"date-time":"2024-05-16T03:24:48Z","timestamp":1715829888000},"page":"788","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":24,"title":["Comparison of Five Serological Methods for the Detection of West Nile Virus Antibodies"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1370-4114","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Philipp","family":"Girl","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Bundeswehr Institute of Microbiology, 80937 Munich, Germany"},{"name":"Central Institute of the Bundeswehr Medical Service Munich, 85748 Garching, Germany"},{"name":"Institute for Infectious Diseases and Zoonoses, Department of Veterinary Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, LMU Munich, 80539 Munich, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kathrin","family":"Euringer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Bundeswehr Institute of Microbiology, 80937 Munich, Germany"},{"name":"Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine II, University Medical Centre Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, 79106 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0772-3343","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mircea","family":"Coroian","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Parasitology and Parasitic Diseases, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca, 400372 Cluj-Napoca, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6076-7914","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Andrei Daniel","family":"Mihalca","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Parasitology and Parasitic Diseases, University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca, 400372 Cluj-Napoca, Romania"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1175-4778","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Johannes P.","family":"Borde","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine II, University Medical Centre Freiburg, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, 79106 Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany"},{"name":"Praxis Prof. Borde and Kollegen, 77704 Oberkirch, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7461-293X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Gerhard","family":"Dobler","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Bundeswehr Institute of Microbiology, 80937 Munich, Germany"},{"name":"Department of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, LMU Center of Medicine, 80336 Munich, Germany"},{"name":"Department of Parasitology, University of Hohenheim, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"39","DOI":"10.1016\/j.antiviral.2018.12.005","article-title":"West Nile virus epizootic in Germany, 2018","volume":"162","author":"Ziegler","year":"2019","journal-title":"Antivir. 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