Comparison of a commercial ELISA and indirect hemagglutination assay with the modified agglutination test for detection of Toxoplasma gondii antibodies in giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca). (August 2022) - Yue, Chanjuan
Abstract: Toxoplasma gondii is a worldwide-distributed zoonotic protozoan parasite which causes toxoplasmosis and has a significant effect on public health. In the giant panda ( Ailuropoda melanoleuca ), toxoplasmosis can cause asymptomatic infections, reproductive disorder and even death, which poses a serious threat to the conservation of this rare protected species. Therefore, serological investigation of T. gondii is essential to understanding its risk to giant pandas, however, there are no specific testing kits for giant pandas. Previous research has used MAT as the reference method for screening T. gondii, to investigate this further, this study focused on the agreement comparing of MAT with ELISA and IHA tests for detecting T. gondii antibodies in 100 blood samples from 55 captive giant pandas in Chengdu, China. The results showed 87.0%, 87.0%, 84.0%, samples were sero-positive for T. gondii using ELISA (kits a, b, c), respectively, while MAT and IHA tests were 84.0% and 9.0% sero-positive, respectively. There was no significant difference between MAT and the three ELISA kits and these two methods had substantial agreement (0.61 < қ ≤ 0.80). Meanwhile, there was a significant difference ( P < 0.001) between MAT and IHA, and these two methods had only a slight agreement (қ ≤ 0.20). The relative sensitivity of the ELISA (kits a, b, c) were 89.0%, 91.5% and 95.1%, and the specificity were 86.7%, 80.0% and 80.0%, respectively, which showed these three ELISA kits all had great accuracy. It is suggested that MAT is the recommended test method for primary screening T. gondii in giant pandas and then verified by ELISA. Graphical abstract: Image 1 Highlights: It's the first report to compare the agreement of the three test kits for detecting T. gondii antibodies in giant panda. No significant difference and substantial agreement between MAT and ELISA, slight agreement, meanwhile, the contrary result between MAT and IHA. The relative sensitivity of ELISA kits was 89%, 91.5% and 95.1%, and the specificity was 86.7%, 80% and 80%, respectively. The two commonly used commercial MAT and ELISA kits tested were valuable tools for T. gondii diagnosis for giant panda.