Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Comparative performance of three TSE rapid tests for surveillance in healthy sheep affected by scrapie.
- Journal:
- Journal of virological methods
- Year:
- 2011
- Authors:
- Bozzetta, Elena et al.
- Affiliation:
- CEA - Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Piemonte Liguria e Valle d'Aosta · Italy
Plain-English summary
In this study, researchers looked at how well three rapid tests could detect scrapie, a disease affecting sheep, in healthy sheep that didn't show any symptoms. They tested 969 sheep from 23 farms in Italy, all over 18 months old, using three different tests. The results showed that one test was positive for 132 out of 136 confirmed cases of classical scrapie, another for 135 cases, and the third for 128 cases. The first two tests performed better overall, especially in detecting the disease at earlier stages. The findings suggest that the choice of test can significantly affect the success of scrapie surveillance efforts.
Abstract
Rapid tests specific for sheep and goats became part of European Union-wide active scrapie surveillance in 2006. Performance of three approved TSE rapid tests for the detection of sheep infected with scrapie in field cases in the pre-clinical stage of the disease was compared. The medulla oblongata of 969 asymptomatic sheep of various genotype and breed aged over 18 months from 23 Italian flocks affected with scrapie, were tested by the Bio-Rad TeSeE Sheep/Goat (A), the IDEXX HerdChek BSE-Scrapie Antigen Test Kit, EIA (B) and the Prionics(®)-Check Western Small Ruminant (C) rapid tests. Of 136 positive samples of classical scrapie, as confirmed by Western blot assay, 132 were positive with test A (Se 97.06%, CI 95% 92.64-99.19); 135 with test B (Se 99.26%, 95% CI 95.97-99.98) and 128 with test C (Se 94.12%, 95% CI 88.74-97.43). Tests A and B showed the best performance on analytical sensitivity. All three systems demonstrated good reproducibility: being the intrarater and interrater kappa coefficients always over 0.83. The one available atypical scrapie sample was positive with tests A and B, negative with test C. Considering the discrepant results in the detection of low PrP(sc) concentrations and of the atypical case, differences can be expected in the efficacy of an active surveillance system, depending on the test adopted.
Find similar cases for your pet
PetCaseFinder finds other peer-reviewed reports of pets with the same symptoms, plus a plain-English summary of what was tried across them.
Search related cases →Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21256871/