The membrane was blocked with PBS containing 5% skimmed milk (PBS-SM) for 1 h at 37 °C and incubated with cattle sera diluted at 1:100 with PBS-SM at 37 °C for 1 h. The membrane BLU9931 was washed three times with PBS-T for 5 min each and incubated with horseradish peroxidase-conjugated antibovine IgG (Sigma Chemicals, USA) diluted at 1:4000 with PBS-SM at 37 °C for 1 h. The reacting bands were revealed using 3,3′-tetrahydrochloride (DAB) and H2O2. Polystyrene 96-well microtiter plates (Polysorp Nunc, USA) were coated overnight at 4 °C

with 50 ng/well of recombinant protein NcSRS2 in 0.05-M carbonate–bicarbonate buffer (pH 9.6). The plates were then washed three times using 0.01-M PBS with 0.05% Tween 20 (PBS-T) and blocked using 0.01-M PBS with 5% nonfat milk at 37 °C for 1 h. After three washes with PBS-T, positive and negative control sera and serum samples, all in triplicate, were diluted at 1:100 in 0.01-M PBS with 5% nonfat milk and incubated at 37 °C for 1 h. After three washes, 100 μL/well of antibovine IgG conjugated to peroxidase (Sigma) diluted at 1:4000 in 0.01-M PBS with 5% nonfat milk were added, followed by incubation at 37 °C for 1 h. After another five washes, 100 μL of the substrate (o-phenylenediamine dihydrochloride; I-BET151 OPD tablets, Sigma Chemicals, USA) in phosphate-citrate buffer (0.4 mg/mL) containing 0.04% of 30% (v/v)

hydrogen peroxide, pH 5.0, were added to each well and the plates were incubated in the dark at room temperature for 15 min, and 50 μL of stop buffer (1-N H2SO4) then added.

Mean optical density (OD) at 492 nm was determined for all test wells using a microtiter plate reader (Multiskan MCC/340 MKII, Alabama, USA). For ELISA intra plate control we used two positive and two negative control sera. To accurately assess the assay for diagnostic specificity, sensitivity, cut-off and predictive values, the results from the 497 confirmed positive and negative samples were subjected to Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis ADAMTS5 using MedCalc statistical software (version 10.3.0.0) (www.medcalc.be). The most appropriate cutoff was selected for the IFAT and ELISA using ROC analysis that plots the DSn (true positives/true positives + false negatives) and DSp (true negatives/true negatives + false positives) as a function of cutoff. To evaluate the test accuracy (the values of specificity and sensitivity) in the absence of a gold standard, the TAGS (Tests in the Absence of a Gold Standard) analysis were performed (Pouillot et al., 2002); for this we used two population, 2 tests (ELISA and IFAT), and no reference population. The antigenic domain of NcSRS2 located in the distal C-terminal two thirds of the molecule was clone and expressed in E. coli as inclusion bodies, then used as a recombinant antigen for ELISA-NcSRS2.