Preliminary evaluation of diagnostic tests using horses experimentally infected with Trypanosoma evansi

Seven surra negative horses were intravenously inoculated with 3 x 10(6) Trypanosoma evansi parasites derived from a camel. One horse was maintained as an uninfected negative control. Three antigen and three antibody detection tests were evaluated for diagnosis of infection in horses. The microhaematocrit centrifugation test (MHCT) was the most sensitive, first detecting parasites between one and three days ((x) over bar 2.4) post infection (p.i.). The antigen (ag)-ELISA detected antigen between three and ten days ((x) over bar 6.6) p.i. The latex agglutination test (LAT) first gave positive results on day 3 ((x) over bar 3.0) p.i. Following the treatment of horses with trypanocidal drugs, the MCHT and the mouse inoculation test (MIT) became negative. Antigen levels using LAT declined and reached pre-infection levels in five out of six horses during the period of observation (92-279 days). Antigen levels using the ag-ELISA declined as well but did not reach pre-infection levels in any of the six horses. Three antibody detection techniques, ab-ELISA, card agglutination test (CATT), and immunofluorescent antibody test (IFAT) detected antibodies in the blood of all seven infected horses but not in the uninfected control. However, the ab-ELISA did not discriminate clearly between sera from infected and uninfected horses because unacceptably high ELISA background readings were detected in 15% of the surra negative horses shipped to the UAE from the UK. The ELISA antibody increased above pre-infection levels in the six horses experimentally infected, but not in one horse. In this horse the ELISA antibody level exceeded the cut-off level only after the reoccurrence of the T evansi infection. The IFAT detected antibodies 15.7 days p.i. in all infected horses. (C) 2001 Harcourt Publishers Ltd.