Use of Brucella cytoplasmic proteins in the serodiagnosis of canine brucellosis.

MM WANKE,; NORMA MONACHESI,; ME LOZA,; BRUNO RUTTER,; PABLO CESAR BALDI; CA FOSSATI,

Oslo

Congreso; Advances in Dog, Cat and Exotic Carnivore Reproduction.; 2000

The symptoms of canine infection by Brucella canis are usually evident, but many infected dogs do not show prominent signs of the disease, making laboratory diagnosis imperative in such cases. The isolation of the ethiological agent from blood is the only absolutely specific test, but its sensitivity is affected by periods of abacteriemia of variable duration. In addition, bacteriological methods are lenghty and require specialized equipment and personnel. For these reasons, serological tests are usually preferred for the rapid diagnosis of the disease. The most widely used serological method for the diagnosis of canine brucellosis is the rapid slide agglutination test, with or without 2-mercaptoethanol (2ME-RSAT and RSAT, respectively) using the M- strain of B. canis, which mainly detects antibodies to the rough lipopolysaccharide (R-LPS) of the pathogen. This test has a false-positive rate of about 10% due to cross-reactivity between Brucella R-LPS and the LPS from other bacteria. Recently, we have shown that canine brucellosis can be specifically diagnosed by means of an ELISA for measuring serum antibodies directed to LPS-free cytoplasmic proteins (CP) of B. abortus. Here we have followed the titers of 2ME-RSAT and of anti-CP and anti-RLPS antibodies after treatment in 5 dogs with bacteriollogically confirmed B. canis infection.