Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Echinococcus infections in Chinese dogs: a comparison of coproantigen kits.
- Journal:
- Journal of helminthology
- Year:
- 2014
- Authors:
- Huang, Y et al.
- Affiliation:
- Institute of Parasitic Disease Prevention and Control of Sichuan Provincial Centre for Disease Prevention and Control · China
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
Researchers looked at different test kits for detecting Echinococcus worms in dogs in China. They compared three commercial kits from local producers with a laboratory kit from New Zealand. The local kits did not provide information on how well they were tested for accuracy. When they tested these kits on dog poop samples from both infected and healthy dogs, they found that the results varied. The Tiankang kit was good at identifying healthy dogs but missed some infected ones, while the Combined kit was better at finding infections but sometimes incorrectly identified healthy dogs. Overall, the study suggests that these kits need more validation before they can be trusted for use in controlling Echinococcus infections in dogs.
Abstract
Coproantigen test kits for Echinococcus spp. worms in dogs, designed for commercial use, were obtained from three different Chinese producers, and were compared with a laboratory kit using reagents from New Zealand. None of the three producers would provide details of their test validation. From a known set of dog faeces obtained at necropsy from infected and uninfected dogs, and from faeces collected from dogs necropsied in the field, results differed between the kits. For field material, the Tiankang kit showed the best specificity but lacked sensitivity. The Combined kit showed best sensitivity but lacked specificity. Results for the Haitai kit were intermediate. With samples from experimentally infected dogs, both the Haitai and Combined kits lacked sensitivity. Kits will need to be validated by the user before they can be relied on to predict progress in Echinococcus spp. control in China or in other countries.
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Search related cases →Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23347576/