IDEXX HerdChek CWD Ag Test

Key facts

• Method is an antigen-capture EIA that detects PrPSc, the disease-associated prion protein.
• The workflow skips proteinase K digestion and runs at room temperature; the EIA portion takes under 3.5 hours.
• Listed species are elk, white-tailed deer and mule deer; the sample is postmortem retropharyngeal lymph node.
• Catalogue entry is part 99-09663, a pack of 5 plates or strips; availability is listed as worldwide, with a note that not all products are registered in every country.
• The product page names no regulatory approvals and carries no dates, so approval status rests on older news items.
• A 2003 item reports USDA approval and sales to approved laboratories from 1 December 2003 (read as a search excerpt only).
• The kit uses Seprion ligand capture technology licensed from Microsens Biotechnologies.
• In May 2004 IDEXX won USDA approval for a BSE kit on the same technology, described as following the previously approved CWD kit.
• As of the APHIS page last modified 25 September 2026, 33 laboratories are approved for CWD testing: 11 ELISA only, 9 IHC only, 13 both. The page names no kits.
• A state diagnostic lab states it runs ELISA on fresh samples and IHC on fixed ones, under USDA, NAHLN and NVSL authorization; the kit is not named.

Timeline

1. 2003USDA approval reported and first sales to approved laboratories (1 December).
2. 2004USDA approval of the sister HerdChek BSE kit, confirming the CWD kit was already approved.
3. 2026APHIS lists 33 CWD-approved laboratories by method (page modification date).