ELISA using a recombinant chimera of ESAT-6/MPB70/MPB83 for Mycobacterium bovis diagnosis in naturally infected cattle

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Abstract
Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) control programs generally rely on intradermal tuberculin tests for the antemortem diagnosis of Mycobacterium bovis infection in cattle, but these tests detect only a portion of the infected animals. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the diagnostic coverage of a combination of the bTB antemortem techniques known as the comparative intradermal tuberculin test (CITT) and an ELISA based on a recombinant chimera of ESAT-6/MPB70/MPB83 as the antigen in cattle. The results were compared to postmortem findings based on M. bovis culturing and PCR. Paired comparisons of all data (n=92) demonstrated that ELISA and LST results compared to the culturing results did not present significant differences (P=0.27 on McNemar’s test and P=0.12 on Fisher’s exact test, respectively). Using culturing as the gold standard, the sensitivity and specificity of ELISA were 79.5% (95% CI: 64.5–89.2%) and 75.5% (95% CI: 62.4–85.1%), respectively, whereas LST demonstrated 100% sensitivity (95% CI: 91.03–100%) and 92.5% specificity (95% CI: 82.1–97.0%). The ELISA results did not reveal significant differences in relation to the LST results (P>0.99 on Fisher’s exact test). Using the latter as the gold standard, the sensitivity and specificity of ELISA were 79.1% (95% CI: 64.8–88.6%) and 79.6% (95% CI: 66.4–88.5%), respectively. The use of ELISA with the recombinant chimera of ESAT-6/MPB70/MPB83 as the antigen complements the diagnostic coverage provided by CITT and increases the removal of infected animals from herds.

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