Evaluation of a lateral flow assay for the diagnosis of Mycobacterium bovis infection in dairy cattle.

Abstract

A commercially available multi-antigen lateral flow assay (LFA) for detection of antibodies to Mycobacterium bovis was evaluated by testing dairy cattle in Baja California, México. Sera and tissue samples were obtained from 268 dairy cattle at a slaughterhouse and were tested by LFA, bacteriological culture, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Of 107 culture positive samples, 70 (65.4%) were positive by PCR and 49 (45.8%) were positive by LFA. The PCR and LFA gave positive results with an additional 59 (36.6%) and 77 (47.8%) of the 161 culture negative samples, respectively. The false negative rate for the PCR was 34.6% and 54.2% for the LFA. Due to the high false positive rate for both PCR and LFA observed in this study, the LFA cannot be a useful test, even in combination with PCR.