Medica 2026
Nov 16-19, 2026 - Düsseldorf, Germany

Innovative VHH Reagents and Antigens for Avian Disease Detection

In modern poultry health management, serological testing plays a central role in monitoring immune status, evaluating vaccination programs, and detecting field exposure to pathogens. This is especially critical for pathogens that can cause severe economic losses, such as Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV) and Fowl Adenoviruses (FAdV). However, hemagglutination inhibition (HI) tests and indirect ELISA typically require 2-3 hours to complete, which can be a significant limitation in routine detection.

Creative Diagnostics based on a VHH-HRP fusion expression platform, provides a new generation of high-quality VHH probes. These reagents can be directly applied in competitive ELISA without the need for enzyme-labeled secondary antibodies. As a result, the workflow is significantly streamlined, while maintaining excellent assay performance.

Serological Monitoring of Avian Viral Diseases

Serological surveillance of avian viral diseases remains a cornerstone of poultry health management and biosecurity. In FAdVs, the hexon, fiber, and penton base proteins are the primary antigenic determinants, with the hexon protein being the major target for neutralizing antibodies. For NDV, serological assays commonly focus on the hemagglutinin-neuraminidase (HN) and fusion (F) proteins, which are critical for viral attachment and membrane fusion, respectively, and serve as key immunogenic markers. In the case of AIVs, the hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA) surface glycoproteins define viral subtypes and elicit potent humoral responses. Competitive or indirect ELISA platforms targeting these proteins enable sensitive and specific detection of virus-specific antibodies, and supporting large-scale epidemiological studies.

Application of VHH-based Reagents

Schematic representation of VHH screening, production and cELISA developmentFig. 1 Schematic representation of VHH screening, production and cELISA development.

Single-domain antibodies derived from camelids, known as VHHs or nanobodies, have emerged as powerful tools in immunodiagnostics due to their high stability, small size (~15 kDa), and strong antigen-binding affinity. It can be fused with different reporters, which can be used as a probe to avoid the use of enzyme-labeled secondary antibodies and to develop one-step ELISA. Moreover, VHHs can be easily engineered into bivalent or multivalent formats to enhance binding avidity or to recognize different epitopes simultaneously, thereby improving assay sensitivity and specificity.

Product Performance

  • High-purity recombinant antigens ensure reliable performance in serological assays.
  • VHH-based reagents combine small size with high specificity and stability, delivering fast and sensitive detection.
  • Broadly applicable in IFA and Western blot, and compatible with diverse detection platforms for flexible use.

SDS-PAGE FAdV ProteinsFig. 2 SDS-PAGE analysis of purified FAdV hexon-HVR, fiber-1, fiber-2 and penton proteins.

Anti-NDV VHH BindingFig. 3 Analysis of the binding activity of Anti-NDV VHH to the NDV-N protein.

Anti-H5N1 NA VHH IFAFig 4. IFA analysis of HEK293T cells transfected with the pCAGEN-H5N1-NA plasmid using anti-H5N1 NA VHH-HRP.

References

  1. Sheng Y.; et al. Nanobody-horseradish peroxidase fusion protein as an ultrasensitive probe to detect antibodies against Newcastle disease virus in the immunoassay. J Nanobiotechnology. 2019 Mar 1;17(1):35.
  2. Zhao H.; et al. HRP-conjugated-nanobody-based cELISA for rapid and sensitive clinical detection of ASFV antibodies. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2022 Jun;106(11):4269-4285.
  3. Duan H.; et al. Development of a Nanobody-Based Competitive Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay for Efficiently and Specifically Detecting Antibodies against Genotype 2 Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Viruses. J Clin Microbiol. 2021 Nov 18;59(12):e0158021.
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