Zoonotic transmission of Hendra virus (HeV) from primary hosts (pteropid bats) to horses, and, occasionally, onward adventitious spread to humans, is associated with high mortality rates in both affected secondary species. The introduction of an effective recombinant G protein vaccine for use in horses has been a major advance for the suppression of disease risk. However, equine HeV vaccination induces neutralising antibody that is indistinguishable from a post infection immune response when using most first line serology assays (eg. VNT and some ELISAs). We have constructed and evaluated an IgM antibody capture (MAC) ELISA which employs yeast expressed HeV nucleoprotein (N). All other serology tests use the G protein which does not detect early infection and is present in the current Hendra virus vaccine and may cause ambiguity in interpretation of results. Thus, this is the first test developed using a N protein which can successfully detect a recent (primarily within the last four weeks) infection of horses with HeV and is not affected by vaccination induced antibody. Testing a limited panel (21 samples) of post infection sera, a normal serum panel (288 samples) and a post vaccination panel (163 samples), we have estimated DSe to be 100 % (95 % CI, 83.9–100.0 %) and DSp to be 98.4 % (95 % CI, 96.8–99.4 %) relative to assigned serology results (VNT, ELISA and Luminex) for the test panels. The HeV IgM MAC ELISA is intended to supplement other molecular and serology test results, with selective use, and is the only serology test which can provide an indication for recent infection which is otherwise not available.

亨德拉病毒 (HeV) 从主要宿主（翼翅蝙蝠）到马的人畜共患病传播，以及偶尔向人类的不定传播，与两个受影响的次要物种的高死亡率有关。引入用于马的有效重组 G 蛋白疫苗是抑制疾病风险的重大进展。然而，当使用大多数一线血清学检测（例如 VNT 和一些 ELISA）时，马 HeV 疫苗接种会诱导与感染后免疫反应无法区分的中和抗体。我们已经构建并评估了使用酵母表达的 HeV 核蛋白 (N) 的 IgM 抗体捕获 (MAC) ELISA。所有其他血清学测试都使用 G 蛋白，该蛋白不能检测早期感染，并且存在于当前的亨德拉病毒疫苗中，可能会导致结果解释不明确。因此，这是第一个使用 N 蛋白开发的测试，该测试可以成功检测最近（主要是在过去 4 周内）感染 HeV 的马，并且不受疫苗接种诱导抗体的影响。测试感染后血清的有限样本（21 个样本）、正常血清样本（288 个样本）和疫苗接种后样本（163 个样本），我们估计 DSe 为 100%（95%CI，83.9–100.0%）和相对于测试组的指定血清学结果（VNT、ELISA 和 Luminex），DSp 为 98.4 %（95 % CI，96.8–99.4 %）。HeV IgM MAC ELISA 旨在补充其他分子和血清学检测结果，选择性使用，