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Comparative Study

Detection of neutralising antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 to determine population exposure in Scottish blood donors between March and May 2020

Craig P Thompson et al. Euro Surveill. 2020 Oct.

Abstract

BackgroundThe progression and geographical distribution of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in the United Kingdom (UK) and elsewhere is unknown because typically only symptomatic individuals are diagnosed. We performed a serological study of blood donors in Scotland in the spring of 2020 to detect neutralising antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 as a marker of past infection and epidemic progression.AimOur objective was to determine if sera from blood bank donors can be used to track the emergence and progression of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic.MethodsA pseudotyped SARS-CoV-2 virus microneutralisation assay was used to detect neutralising antibodies to SARS-CoV-2. The study comprised samples from 3,500 blood donors collected in Scotland between 17 March and 18 May 2020. Controls were collected from 100 donors in Scotland during 2019.ResultsAll samples collected on 17 March 2020 (n = 500) were negative in the pseudotyped SARS-CoV-2 virus microneutralisation assay. Neutralising antibodies were detected in six of 500 donors from 23 to 26 March. The number of samples containing neutralising antibodies did not significantly rise after 5-6 April until the end of the study on 18 May. We found that infections were concentrated in certain postcodes, indicating that outbreaks of infection were extremely localised. In contrast, other areas remained comparatively untouched by the epidemic.ConclusionAlthough blood donors are not representative of the overall population, we demonstrated that serosurveys of blood banks can serve as a useful tool for tracking the emergence and progression of an epidemic such as the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak.

Keywords: COVID19; SARS-CoV-2; pandemic; serology; surveillance, Scotland.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Selection criteria for classifying a sample as SARS-CoV-2-neutralising, Scotland, March–May 2020 (n = 3,617)
Figure 2
Figure 2
SARS-CoV-2 antibody prevalence estimates for each health board through time using the model outlined in the methods, blood donors, Scotland, March–May 2020 (n = 3,500)
Figure 3
Figure 3
Estimates of SARS-CoV-2 antibody prevalence at the end of our study period (the parameter θh from the logistic equation), ordered by the lower 95% highest density interval, blood donors, Scotland March–May 2020 (n = 3,500)
Figure 4
Figure 4
Health boards showing estimated endpoint seroprevalences for SARS-CoV-2 in blood donors, Scotland, March–May 2020 (n = 3,500)
Figure 5
Figure 5
Raw counts of positive SARS-CoV-2 samples in the additional survey of postcodes close to Glasgow, blood donors, March–May 2020 (n = 490)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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