Evaluation and comparison of serological methods forthe detection of bovine neosporosis in Argentina

CAMPERO LM; LIESELOTTE M. ; MORÉ G.; RAMBEAUD M; BACIGALUPE D; MOORE D.P.; HECKER Y.P.; CAMPERO C.M.; SCHARES G; VENTURINI MC

REVISTA ARGENTINA DE MICROBIOLOGíA

ASOCIACION ARGENTINA MICROBIOLOGIA

Lugar: Buenos Aires; Año: 2015 vol. 47 p. 295 - 301

0325-7541

Neospora caninum is a protozoan parasite that causes abortion and importanteconomic losses in cattle worldwide. The accurate diagnosis of neosporosis is essential formanagement and control measures. The aims of this study were: i) to evaluate the perfor-mance of an in-house enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay based on the 38 kDa native antigen(p38-ELISA) to diagnose bovine neosporosis in Argentina using a well- characterized local serapanel from experimentally infected and naturally exposed cattle and ii) to compare the diag-nostic performance and agreement of three N. caninum serological tests: p38-ELISA, indirectfluorescence antibody test (IFAT) and immunoblotting (IB) using the same sera panel. Serumsamples testing either positive or negative by IFAT and IB were considered ??Relative Standardsof Comparison?? (RSC) and used for p38-ELISA evaluation. Receiver operating characteristicsanalysis revealed that p38-ELISA was highly accurate (area under the curve= 0.982) accordingto RSC with a cut-off index of 0.0905. Relative sensitivity and specificity of p38-ELISA were97.8 % and 99.5 %, respectively and agreement between RSC and p38-ELISA was almost perfect(k= 0.97). The evaluation and performance comparison of serological tests were performedaccording to the definition of gold standard based on the decision of the ??majority of tests??.All tests displayed high sensitivity and specificity values (greater than 95 %); and excellentagreement. This study describes the accurate performance of p38-ELISA evaluated locally and the highly accurate diagnostic performance of the studied tests for the detection of anti-N.caninum antibodies in cattle from Argentina.