Evaluation of whole cell antigen and outer memberane protein based latex agglutination test for serodiagnosis of canine leptospirosis

Abstract

A study was undertaken to evaluate the efficacy of whole cell antigen and OMP based Latex Agglutination Test (LAT) for the serodiagnosis of canine leptospirosis. Serum samples were collected from University Veterinary Hospitals of Mannuthy and Kokkali. These samples were subjected to serologic testing by Microscopic Agglutination Test (MAT) and LAT and the results were compared.

A total of 60 serum samples were screened in this study. MAT detected a prevalence rate of 76.67 per cent. The most predominant serovar was Australis (38.33 per cent) followed by Grippotyphosa (18.33 per cent), Pomona (18.33 per cent), Canicola (15.0 per cent), Icterohaemorrhagiae (13.33 per cent), Javanica (10.0 per cent), Patoc (8.33 per cent), Autumnalis (6.67 per cent) and Pyrogenes (6.67 per cent). The sensitivity and specificity of whole cell antigen were 97.83 per cent and 75.86 per cent respectively. On the other hand, the sensitivity and specificity of OMP based LAT were 95.65 per cent and 86.21 per cent respectively. As the kappa values of both LATs were greater than 0.81, the tests indicate perfect agreement with MAT. From this results, OMP–based LAT developed for the detection of leptospiral antibodies was proved to be a very useful rapid test for immunodiagnosis. OMP–based LAT is an extremely simple and inexpensive test that does not require expertise or sophisticated equipments and could also be used for the detection of leptospiral antibodies in place of MAT, which requires live leptospiral cultures, expertise, time.