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Evaluation of a new commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for the detection of porcine antibodies against Trichinella spp

Caroline F. Frey¹, Patrik Buholzer, Relja Beck, Albert Marinculi, Alex J. Raeber, Bruno Gottstein and Manon E. Schuppers

Correspondence: ¹Corresponding Author: Caroline Frey, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Bern, Institute of Parasitology, PO Box 8466, 3001 Bern, Switzerland. caroline.frey{at}ipa.unibe.ch

Trichinellosis is a zoonotic disease that is caused by the nematode Trichinella spp. Both European Union regulations and guidelines from the World Organization for Animal Health foresee the possibility of conducting serological surveillance for Trichinella spp. A newly developed commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was evaluated against 2 existing diagnostic techniques: an in-house ELISA and an in-house Western blot. A total of 875 Trichinella larva–negative samples of pigs and 93 Trichinella larva–positive samples of both naturally and experimentally infected pigs were included in the study. Bayesian modeling techniques were used to correct for the absence of a perfect reference test. The sensitivity and specificity of the commercial ELISA was 97.1–97.8% and 99.5–99.8%, respectively. Sensitivity analysis demonstrated high stability in the models. In a serological surveillance system, ELISA-positive samples should be tested by a confirmatory test. The Western blot is a suitable test for this purpose. With the use of the results of the models, the sensitivity and specificity of a test protocol in both ELISA and Western blot were 95.9% and 99.9%, respectively. The high sensitivity and specificity were achieved with a lower limit of detection than that of the routine artificial digestion test, suggesting that serological surveillance is a valuable alternative in surveillance for Trichinella spp. in pig production.

Key Words: Bayesian techniques • enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay • evaluation • pigs • Trichinella