Evaluation of five serologic assays for bovine tuberculosis surveillance in domestic free-range pigs from southern Spain
Preventive Veterinary Medicine publish this investigation article
February 1st, 2017
In countries where bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is still prevalent the contact among different animal species in extensive systems contributes to the circulation of Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis) and other members of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC). Thus, free-range pigs can develop subclinical infections and may contribute to disease spread to bovine and wildlife. Serodiagnosis has been proposed as a screening tool for detecting infected pig herds; however, the value of this method to obtain an accurate diagnosis in this species is still not clear. In this study, sensitivity (Se) and specificity (Sp) estimates of four ELISAs and a lateral flow immunochromatographic antibody assay based on different M. bovis antigens, including MPB70 and MPB83 proteins, were evaluated in naturally infected domestic free-range pigs. For this purpose, submandibular lymph nodes and blood samples from 217 pigs from both TB-infected and historically negative farms were sampled at slaughterhouse and analysed by gross examination, histopathology, bacteriological culture and qPCR. Se and Sp estimates of the 5 evaluated assays ranged from 66.1% to 78% (CI95 from 52.6 to 87.7%) and from 98.9% to 100% (CI95 from 93.8 to 100%), respectively. Results of our study suggest that all the evaluated assays could be used as a first screening tool to conduct bTB surveillance in domestic pigs at population level; however, animals from seropositive herds should later be surveyed by other methods in order to reduce false negative results
Cardoso-Toset F., Luque I., Carrasco L., Jurado-Martos F., Risalde MA., Venteo A., Infantes-Lorenzo JA., Bezos J., Rueda P., Tapia I., Gortazar C., Dominguez L., Dominguez M. and Gomez-Laguna J.
 | Centro de Investigación y Calidad Agroalimentaria (CICAP). |
 | Departamento de Anatomía y Anatomía Patológica Comparadas. Facultad de Veterinaria. Universidad de Córdoba (UCO). |
 | Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos (IREC). Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC). Universidad de Castilla La Mancha (UCLM). Gobierno de Castilla-La Mancha (JCCM). |
 | Inmunología y Genética Aplicada, S.A. (INGENASA). |
 | Servicio de Micobacterias (MYC). Centro de Vigilancia Sanitaria Veterinaria (VISAVET). Universidad Complutense (UCM). |
 | Servicio de Inmunología. Centro Nacional de Microbiología (CNM). Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII). |
