Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Accuracy of two rapid tests for Anaplasma antibodies in dogs
By Liu, Jiayou et al.·Published in Journal of veterinary diagnostic investigation : official publication of the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians, Inc·2018·Department of Assay R&D·View original on PubMed →
PetCaseFinder translated the abstract of this peer-reviewed paper into plain English so pet owners can read it. We do not publish original research — every detail traces back to the citation above. How we work →
Original publication title: Sensitivity and specificity levels of two rapid assays for antibodies to Anaplasma spp. in dogs.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A study looked at two tests for detecting a tick-borne disease called canine anaplasmosis in dogs. The SNAP 4Dx Plus test was found to be more accurate than the VetScan Canine Anaplasma Rapid test, correctly identifying a higher percentage of infected dogs. In particular, the SNAP test had a sensitivity of about 85% for one type of Anaplasma and over 95% specificity, meaning it was good at correctly identifying healthy dogs as well. If your dog shows symptoms like fever, lethargy, or joint pain, ask your vet about these tests to check for anaplasmosis.
People also search for: dog tick disease symptoms · anaplasmosis test for dogs · SNAP 4Dx Plus test accuracy
Abstract
Canine anaplasmosis is a tick-borne disease of dogs that results following infection with Anaplasma phagocytophilum or Anaplasma platys. The SNAP 4Dx Plus test (IDEXX Laboratories) and the VetScan Canine Anaplasma Rapid test (Abaxis) are commercial in-house rapid tests for the detection of antibody to these 2 antigenically related Anaplasma species. We evaluated 2 tests using serum and whole blood samples obtained from reference laboratories and veterinary hospitals. Samples were obtained from regions of the country known to be habitats of the primary tick vectors. The A. phagocytophilum sample set comprised 236 dog sera from the northeastern and midwestern United States; the A. platys sample set comprised 179 sera from dogs living in the southwestern United States. An indirect immunofluorescent antibody (IFA) test and an A. platys species-specific ELISA were used as reference assays for the A. phagocytophilum and A. platys samples, respectively. The SNAP test demonstrated significantly higher sensitivity (84.7% for A. phagocytophilum and 83.1% for A. platys), compared to the VetScan test (39.0% for A. phagocytophilum and 57.6% for A. platys). The specificity of the SNAP test (95.8% for A. phagocytophilum and 99.2% for A. platys) was significantly greater than the VetScan test (85.6% for A. phagocytophilum and 82.5% for A. platys). In a separate clinic study, conducted within an A. phagocytophilum-endemic state (Minnesota) using 154 whole blood samples from client-owned dogs, the VetScan test was negative for 22 of 39 SNAP and IFA seropositive samples.
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 on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29202672/