Comparison of assays for antibodies to Encephalitozoon cuniculi in rabbits

Abstract

SummaryTwo indirect immunofluorescence (IIF)assays, two enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs)and the carbon immunoassay (CIA)for determination of antibodies to Encephalitozoon cuniculi were compared using 210 sera of rabbits, 135 of which originated from seven infected colonies, while 75 originated from four uninfected colonies. There was no evidence of a difference between the different assays with respect to the number of positive sera. There was a clear correlation between the quantitative response measured by IIF and CIA and the other assays, and between both IIF tests, while no such correlation was found in the quantitative response measured by ELISAs,which might be explained by the less quantitative nature of the ELISA.Therefore quantitative determination of antibodies to E. cuniculi should be performed by IIF and not by ELISA.The nosographic sensitivities Nt and specificities N2 of the assays were~0.94 and~0.97 respectively. Small differences in Nt and N2 between the assays, although not statistically significant, were responsible for differences in the calculated predictive values of a positive test and of a negative test. As expected, the magnitude of these differences depended on the fraction of positive sera sampled from a given colony. There was strong evidence of such a difference between the fraction of positive sera found in different colonies, but the sample size from some colonies was too small to allow any conclusion, whether this was due to differences in the prevalences of the infection in the colonies or something else. We conclude that any of the assays will be suitable for the routine health monitoring of laboratory rabbit colonies for E. cuniculi infection, as recommended by the Federation of European Laboratory Animal Science Associations.

Serological Survey for Antibodies to Encephalitozoon cuniculi in Pet Rabbits in Italy

“…Table 1 shows the prevalence values according to the two diagnostic assays used, and according to the clinical signs of the tested rabbits. It should be noted that there were no differences in the number of positive sera detected by the ELISA and the CIA tests as also reported by Boot et al. (2000).…”

Relationship between seropositivity of Encephalitozoon cuniculi and renal biochemical markers in clinically healthy rabbits

“…Specific antibodies develop within 21 days post-infection (11,33). In clinically healthy rabbits, the present study showed that the seropositivity rate for E. cuniculi infection was 49.5%, which is similar to rates (50-53%) of infection in previous studies (6,14,20), although it is higher than the rates of infection reported in some (4,13,17,26,28,(30)(31)(32). In contrast, in the current study, the seropositivity rate of the disease was lower than those previously reported (71-93%) in various countries (3,10,21,37).…”

Encephalitozoonosis in rabbits

“…Various diagnostic tests have been developed in order to detect antibodies to E. cuniculi and all are suitable for the use in rabbits. Indirect fluorescent antibody technique (IFAT) and ELISA are the most common tests and correlate well with each other (Boot et al 2000;Jordan et al 2006). Serological screening is used by laboratories to identify and cull potentially infected animals to reduce interference with experimental results (Pakes and Gerrity 1994).…”