Efficacy of Dot-ELISA using different antigens in detecting anti-schistosome antibodies among bovines in field conditions

Abstract

Schistosomosis has been recognised as one of the major parasitic diseases of livestock and human beings. Schistosoma spindale is the major cause of visceral schistosomosis among bovines of Kerala State. Besides pathology in animals, it has been long known that cercariae of S. spindale are a common cause of dermatitis in human beings in Asia. However, detection of this disease based on coprology has underestimated the prevalence of this economically important disease among cattle of the State. An efficient diagnostic tool providing unequivocal evidence of infection in living animals is perhaps, the key to formulate and deliver control measures to the target population. It is also crucial for an enhanced understanding of parasite epidemiology. The utility of excretory-secretory proteins as diagnostic and vaccine candidates for schistosomosis has been a focus of medical research since long. There exists a paucity of information with regard to analysis of ES proteins of S. spindale and their incorporation to develop sensitive and specific serodiagnostic tool. Hence a study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of Dot-ELISA incorporating different antigens of S. spindale and to validate the test under field conditions.

Standardization of dot-enzyme-linked immmunosorbent assay for the diagnosis of bovine visceral schistosomiasis

“…Whereas ESA reacted positively with 3 out of 11 known bovine sera negative for schistosomiasis indicating 78.57% of specificity. Our results were in correlation with the findings of earlier workers [ 8 , 13 , 15 ]. In the present study, schistosomiasis was detected in 32.63% and 40.62% of bovines in Telangana, using WWA and ESA in dot-ELISA, respectively.…”

“…Various authors have tried to develop different kinds of ELISA tests including dot-ELISA which required antigens in nanogram quantities and the present findings were similar to them [ 8 , 11 - 15 ].…”

“…The results are almost in agreement with that of Lakshmanan et al . [ 8 ], but they have not categorized as cattle or buffaloes like in the present findings.…”

“…Schistosomiasis has been recognized as one of the major parasitic diseases of livestock and human beings. S. spindale is the major cause of visceral schistosomiasis among bovines [ 8 ]. Routine diagnostic methods have poor sensitivity and thus underestimate the actual prevalence which ultimately interferes with the control strategies [ 9 ].…”

“…These results are comparable with that of Lakshmanan et al . [ 8 ] as 32% of bovines in Kerala using ESA in dot-ELISA. The results are almost in agreement with that of Lakshmanan et al .…”