Comparative evaluation of different immunoassays for the detection of Taenia solium cysticercosis in swine with low parasite burden

Abstract

Seven swine were experimentally infected with Taenia solium eggs and blood samples from each animal were periodically collected. At the end of the experiment (t140) the animals did not show clinical aspects of cysticercosis or parasites in tongue inspection. All animals were slaughtered and cut into thin slices in searching for cysts. The number of cysts found in each animal varied from 1 to 85. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) tests for antibody (Ab) detection and for antigen (Ag) detection were performed, which presented respectively 71 and 57% of positivity. By immunoblot (IB), using 18/14(T. crassiceps Ag) or lentil-lectin-purified glycoproteins from T. solium Ag (LLGP) as Ag, five (71%) and six (86%) animals were positive, respectively. The association between Ag-ELISA with any IB (18/14 or LLGP) allowed the detection of all animals at 140 days post-experimental infection (days p.e.i.). The use of IB 18/14 combined to the Ag-ELISA allowed the detection of all animals since 70 days p.e.i., and the association between IB LLGP and Ag-ELISA allowed the detection of all animals since 112 days p.e.i. While all animals could be considered healthy by conventional screening tests, the use of immunoassays for detecting Ab and Ag showed better accuracy; therefore it would be more useful than usual clinical examination for screening cysticercosis in slightly infected pigs.

PCR test for detecting Taenia solium cysticercosis in pig carcasses

“…The prevalence of porcine cysticercosis is underestimated due to poor efficiency of visual meat inspection, which was vindicated by many serological tests (Cai et al 2006;Gomes et al 2007). In contrast, its prevalence may also be overestimated through misdiagnosis of other morphological alterations in affected muscles, as the meat safety system is based only on conventional post-mortem inspection at slaughterhouse.…”

Optimisation and comparison of three PCR procedures for molecular identification of Taenia solium

“…It is particularly significant when atypical forms are found, which are not differentiable from other species under the microscope. There are many studies in which researches use or compare different methods for identification and differentiation of T. solium from other species (4,6,7,15). It seems molecular tools can be considered as the methods of final differentiation of suspicious samples.…”

Taenia solium Cysticercosis: Present Scenario: A Review

“…However, on correlation between EITB and necropsy, (Sciutto et al 1998) recorded that a large number of pig which were negative at necropsy were recorded to be EITB positive. The prevalence of porcine cysticercosis is very often underestimated owing to its poor efficiency of visual meat inspection, which has been indicated by many serological tests (Gomes et al 2007). In contrary, its prevalence can too be overestimated through misdiagnosis of other morphological alterations in affected muscles, because the meat safety system is only based on the conventional post-mortem inspection carried out in slaughter houses.…”