The experimental study showed that the HI-HRBC
test was able to detect H5 antibodies at an earlier stage of serological response (8 dpi) than the HI-CRBC. At the
later stages of infection, both HI-CRBC and HI-HRBC
showed an equal dichotomised result. Better agreements
were found between the two HI tests than between each
HI test and the VN test, which might be due to differences
in the binding specificities of antibodies detected
in each of the tests. HI tests detect antibodies that inhibit
viral hemagglutination, whereas the VN test detects
antibodies that neutralize the virus and prevent replication
in living cells [16]; not all antibody specificities that
inhibit hemagglutination necessarily neutralize the virus,