Validation of a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for diagnosing Babesia equi infections of Moroccan origin and its use in determining the seroprevalence of B. equi in Morocco.
- Journal Article
- Research Support
- U.S. Gov't
- Non-P.H.S.
- Antibodies
- Diagnosis
- Diagnostic Technique
- Disease Diagnosis
- Disease Prevalence
- Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA)
- Epidemiology
- Equine Health
- Horses
- Immunofluorescence Assay
- Infectious Disease
- Monoclonal Antibodies
- Peptides
- Piroplasmosis
- Serodiagnosis
- Serological Surveys
- Seroprevalence
- Theileria equi
- Tick-Borne Diseases
- Veterinary Medicine
Summary
This research is about the validation of a test (competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) used to diagnose a specific parasitic infection (Babesia equi) in Moroccan horses and donkeys, and its subsequent application to evaluate the prevalence of infections in donkeys and horses across the country.
Validation of the Diagnostic Test
The researchers developed and validated a highly specific and sensitive diagnostic test, a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (cELISA). This type of test is used to detect specific antibodies in animal serum, in this case, those that target the Babesia equi, a parasite which mainly infect horses and donkeys. The assay is designed around the principle of a specific monoclonal antibody binding to a conserved epitope found within a recombinant peptide of the B. equi parasite. The test measures how much of this binding is inhibited by serum from infected animals.
- The test was compared to an established indirect immunofluorescence assay and showed a high level of agreement (91%), thus demonstrating that the cELISA performs well as a diagnostic tool.
Defining Prevalence of B. equi in Morocco
Utilizing the validated assay, the research continued to determine the seroprevalence (the measure of the presence of specific antibodies in the population) of B. equi in horses and donkeys across Morocco. To do this, the researchers collected and tested serum from 578 animals (163 horses and 415 donkeys) from six different bioclimatic regions across the country.
- Results of their tests revealed that donkeys were significantly more likely than horses to be seropositive for B. equi.
- The location from where animals were sampled did not significantly impact the test results according to an analysis of variance, suggesting that infection occurs ubiquitously across different bioclimatic regions of Morocco.
- It was proposed that management conditions, which might contribute to a greater exposure to ticks (the primary vector for B. equi), could explain the higher susceptibility of donkeys to infection.
This research not only validated a new diagnostic tool for a prevalent equine parasite, but it also provided valuable epidemiological data about the presence and distribution of this parasitic infection in Morocco.
Cite This Article
Publication
Researcher Affiliations
- Department de Parasitologie, Institut Agronomique et Veterinaire Hassan II, Rabat-Instituts, Morocco.
MeSH Terms
- Animals
- Antibodies, Bacterial / analysis
- Antibodies, Monoclonal
- Babesia / immunology
- Babesia / pathogenicity
- Babesiosis / diagnosis
- Babesiosis / veterinary
- Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / methods
- Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / veterinary
- Equidae / microbiology
- Fluorescent Antibody Technique, Indirect / veterinary
- Horse Diseases / diagnosis
- Horse Diseases / microbiology
- Horses
- Sensitivity and Specificity
- Seroepidemiologic Studies
Citations
This article has been cited 5 times.- Tirosh-Levy S, Gottlieb Y, Fry LM, Knowles DP, Steinman A. Twenty Years of Equine Piroplasmosis Research: Global Distribution, Molecular Diagnosis, and Phylogeny.. Pathogens 2020 Nov 8;9(11).
- Lobanov VA, Peckle M, Massard CL, Brad Scandrett W, Gajadhar AA. Development and validation of a duplex real-time PCR assay for the diagnosis of equine piroplasmosis.. Parasit Vectors 2018 Mar 2;11(1):125.
- Salim B, Bakheit MA, Sugimoto C. Rapid detection and identification of Theileria equi and Babesia caballi by high-resolution melting (HRM) analysis.. Parasitol Res 2013 Nov;112(11):3883-6.
- Salim B, Bakheit MA, Kamau J, Nakamura I, Sugimoto C. Nucleotide sequence heterogeneity in the small subunit ribosomal RNA gene within Theileria equi from horses in Sudan.. Parasitol Res 2010 Jan;106(2):493-8.
- Cunha CW, Kappmeyer LS, McGuire TC, Dellagostin OA, Knowles DP. Conformational dependence and conservation of an immunodominant epitope within the babesia equi erythrocyte-stage surface protein equi merozoite antigen 1.. Clin Diagn Lab Immunol 2002 Nov;9(6):1301-6.
