An Ibero-American inter-laboratory trial to evaluate serological tests for the detection of anti-Neospora caninum antibodies in cattle

CAMPERO, L.M.; MORENO- GONZALO, J.; VENTURINI, M.C.; MORÉ, G.; DELLARUPE, A.; RAMBEAD, M.; ECHAIDE, I.; VALENTINI, B.; CAMPERO, C.M.; MOORE, D.P.; CANO, D.B.; FORT, M.; MOTA, R.A.; SERRANO-MARTÍNEZ, M.E.; CRUZ-VÁZQUEZ, C.; ORTEGA-MORA, L.M.; ALVAREZ-GARCIA, G.

TROPICAL ANIMAL HEALTH AND PRODUCTION

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2017 vol. 50 p. 75 - 84

0049-4747

We carried out an inter-laboratory trial to comparethe serological tests commonly used for the detection of specificNeospora caninum antibodies in cattle in Ibero-American countries. A total of eight laboratories participatedfrom the following countries: Argentina (n = 4), Brazil (n = 1),Peru (n = 1), Mexico (n = 1), and Spain (n = 1). A blind panelof well-characterized cattle sera (n = 143) and sera representativeof the target population (n = 351) was tested by sevenin-house indirect fluorescent antibody tests (IFATs 1?7) andthree enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs 1?3;two in-house and one commercial). Diagnostic performanceof the serological tests was calculated and compared accordingto the following criteria: (1) the BPre-test information,^which uses previous epidemiological and serological data;(2) the BMajority of tests,^ which classifies a serumas positiveor negative according to the results obtained by most testsevaluated. Unexpectedly, six tests showed either sensitivity(Se) or specificity (Sp) values lower than 90%. In contrast,the best tests in terms of Se, Sp, and area under the ROC curve(AUC) values were IFAT 1 and optimized ELISA 1 andELISA 2. We evaluated a high number of IFATs, which arethe most widely used tests in Ibero-America. The significantdiscordances observed among the tests regardless of thecriteria employed hinder control programs and urge the useof a common test or with similar performances to either theoptimized IFAT 1 and ELISAs 1 and 2.