Abeer Mahgoub
Cairo University, Giza, Egypt
Title: Evaluation of Fasciola gigantica Metacercarial Antigens for Early Diagnosis of Fascioliasis in Sheep
Biography
Biography: Abeer Mahgoub
Abstract
Background and Purpose: Immunological techniques have been developed over years using different Fasciola antigens for diagnosis of fascioliasis and as to replace the parasitological techniques which are time consuming and usually lack sensitivity and reproducibility.
Methods: In this study, Fasciola gigantica purified metacercarial antigen was early detected in sera of infected sheep using both sandwich and Dot-ELISA in order to evaluate the efficacy of purified metacercarial antigen performance in diagnosing early fascioliasis. This work was conducted on 150 sheep blood samples which were classified according to their parasitological manifestation into 110 sera infected with fascioliasis, 20 infected with other different parasites and 20 healthy control sera. Results: The sensitivity and specificity of sandwich ELISA compared to those of the Dot-ELISA were 92.7% and 93.7% versus 95.5% and 97.5%, respectively. On the other hand, the parasitological examination recorded 68.6% sensitivity and 100% specificity. Conclusions: The purified F. gigantica metaceraial antigens have shown a powerful antigencity for early immune-diagnosis of fascioliasis in both ELISA techniques, however, Dot- ELISA was trouble-free, more sensitive, greater specific and affordable as well as feasible test; the features recommended for any technique to be used in detecting the light infection, particularly, at the early stages that precede the onset of parasite eggs.