A Spanish TB-research consortium including VISAVET, SaBio-IREC, ISCIII, SERIDA and NEIKER recently evaluated the sensitivity of the single cervical intradermal tuberculin test, two interferon-gamma assays and three different antibody detection techniques for bovine tuberculosis diagnosis in a cattle herd with high M. bovis infection prevalence. The results were just published in Research in Veterinary Science. The antibody detection techniques yielded a significant higher sensitivity than that achieved with the official diagnostic techniques. In addition, the interpretation in parallel of cellular and antibody detection techniques reached the highest sensitivity: 98%. Thus, the combined use of diagnostic techniques detecting both cellular and humoral responses could become an alternative in the control of bovine TB outbreaks in high prevalence settings.

 

Source: SaBio-IREC

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