BMC Veterinary Research (Oct 2019)

A European inter-laboratory trial to evaluate the performance of three serological methods for diagnosis of Mycoplasma bovis infection in cattle using latent class analysis

  • Anna-Maria Andersson,
  • Anna Aspán,
  • Henk J. Wisselink,
  • Bregtje Smid,
  • Anne Ridley,
  • Sinikka Pelkonen,
  • Tiina Autio,
  • Klara Tølbøll Lauritsen,
  • Jane Kensø,
  • Patrice Gaurivaud,
  • Florence Tardy

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12917-019-2117-0
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15, no. 1
pp. 1 – 10

Abstract

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Abstract Background Mycoplasma bovis (M. bovis) is an emerging bovine pathogen, leading to significant economic losses in the livestock industry worldwide. Infection can result in a variety of clinical signs, such as arthritis, pneumonia, mastitis and keratoconjunctivitis, none of which are M. bovis-specific. Laboratory diagnosis is therefore important. Serological tests to detect M. bovis antibodies is considered an effective indicator of infection in a herd and often used as a herd test. Combined with clinical judgement, it can also be used to implement control strategies and/or to estimate the disease prevalence within a country. However, due to lack of harmonisation of approaches to testing, and serological tests used by different laboratories, comparisons of prevalence data between countries is often difficult. A network of researchers from six European countries designed and participated in an inter-laboratory trial, with the aim of evaluating the sensitivity (Se) and specificity (Sp) of two commercially available ELISA tests (ID Screen® ELISA (IDvet) and BIO K302 ELISA (BIO-X Diagnostics)) for diagnosis of M. bovis infection. Each laboratory received a blinded panel of bovine sera and tested independently, according to manufacturer’s instructions. Western blot analyses (WB) performed by one of the participating laboratories was used as a third diagnostic test in the statistical evaluation of Se and Sp values using latent class analysis. Results The Se of WB, the ID Screen® ELISA and the BIO K302 ELISA were determined to be 91.8, 93.5 and 49.1% respectively, and corresponding Sp of the three tests were 99.6, 98.6 and 89.6%, respectively. Conclusions The present study is, to our knowledge, the first to present an inter-laboratory comparison of the BIO K302 ELISA and the ID Screen® ELISA. Based on our results, the ID Screen® ELISA showed high consistency with WB and performed with higher precision and accuracy than the BIO K302 ELISA.

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