Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Best blood tests to diagnose visceral leishmaniasis in dogs in Iran
By Farahmand, Mahin et al.·Published in Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical·2015·Department of Parasitology·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Comparison of recombinant A2-ELISA with rKE16 dipstick and direct agglutination tests for diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis in dogs in Northwestern Iran.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of dogs in northwestern Iran showing symptoms of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) were tested using three different blood tests to see which was most effective at detecting the disease. The results showed that the direct agglutination test (DAT) was the most accurate, identifying 100% of symptomatic cases, while the rA2-ELISA test was less specific for dogs without symptoms. The study suggests using the rA2-ELISA test alongside the DAT for better detection of VL in dogs. This could help veterinarians diagnose and treat affected dogs more effectively.
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Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Various methods are used for the diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis (VL), such as microscopic examination, culture and inoculation of laboratory animals; however, serological assays are commonly used for the detection of antibodies in serum samples with a wide range of specificity and sensitivity. METHODS: The purpose of this study was to compare three serological methods, including rA2-ELISA, the recombinant KE16 (rKE16) dipstick test and the direct agglutination test (DAT), for the detection of antibodies against VL antigens. The assays utilized 350 statistically based random serum samples from domestic dogs with clinical symptoms as well as samples from asymptomatic and healthy dogs from rural and urban areas of the Meshkinshahr district, northwestern Iran. RESULTS: Samples were assessed, and the following positive rates were obtained: 11.5% by rKE16, 26.9% by DAT and 49.8% by ELISA. The sensitivity among symptomatic dogs was 32.4% with rKE16, 100% with DAT and 52.9% with ELISA. Conversely, rA2-ELISA was less specific for asymptomatic dogs, at 46.5%, compared with DAT, at 88.9%. CONCLUSIONS: This study recommends rA2-ELISA as a parallel assay combined with DAT to detect VL infection among dogs. Further evaluations should be performed to develop an inexpensive and reliable serologic test for the detection of Leishmania infantum among infected dogs.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25992934/