Avian reticuloendotheliosis (RE) represents an important immunosuppressive disease of poultry. The occurrence of RE in both chickens and turkeys has an immunosuppressive effect and may lead to vaccination failures. Avian reticuloendotheliosis virus (REV) is widely distributed in different kinds of birds, causing subclinical infections. Another important issue adhering to this disease is contamination of vaccines against fowl pox (FP) and Marek’s disease (MD) with REV. The capability of REV to integrate into the genome of other larger DNA viruses complicates its diagnosis and prevention. There are no efficient vaccines against RE nor treatment, which also complicates how to limit its impact on poultry farming. This paper reviews the current state of knowledge of this important immunosuppressive agent of poultry emphasising the importance of this problem in terms of diagnosis of RE.

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for detection of antibodies to reticuloendotheliosis virus (REV) at single serum dilution was standardized. REV HI, one of the Korean field isolates, was inoculated into chicken embryo fibroblast (CEF) cells and was harvested from the culture fluids and cells after 10 to 12 days. Viruses were purified by centrifugation at the 107,000×g for 12 hours on 20, 30, 45% (W/V) sucrose gradient. Virus specific fraction was collected and used as ELISA antigen. To standardize ELISA, the optimal concentration of coating antigen (1 ㎍/well) and conjugate (1/1000) was determined by corrected OD (OD value of positive serum-OD value of negative serum) and P/N ratio (OD value of positive serum/OD value of negative serum).