Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) was caused by a newly emerged coronavirus, now known as SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV), which emerged in 2002/2003 in China. The outbreak spread over Asia and to Europe and North America. A total of 8,096 human cases were reported, of which 774 (9.6%) ended in death.

The human SARS-CoV is believed to originate from animals. In order to identify the reservoir species of SARS-CoV, and to monitor the distribution and host specificity of SARS-CoV and SARS-like CoVs amongst different animal populations, there was a need to develop a generic test capable of detecting antibodies to SARS-CoV in different animal species.

CSIRO’s Linfa Wang and colleagues have now developed a one-step competition ELISA tests for the detection of antibodies to SARS coronavirus in different animal species.

Development of the diagnostic was funded by the Australian Biosecurity CRC and the technical report is now available.

Download Technical Report (PDF file; 901KB)