BACKGROUND: To establish a convenient method for diagnosis of lethal avian influenza virus infection. METHODS: Ninety-six-well microtiter plates were coated with 100 ul of H5N1 protein (0.1 g/ml) diluted in coating buffer. These plates were used for enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS: Four of the 23 suspected borderline cases of lethal avian influenza virus infection were positive by the ELISA, and all the healthy controls (n=234) were negative. These results were confirmed by hemagglutination-inhibition (HI) and neutralization tests, and results were totally consistent (100 percent) with each other among the three methods. CONCLUSION: The ELISA may be used in the screening for lethal avian influenza virus infection. Key words: Avian influenza; H5; IgG anyibody; ELISA.

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