Low agreement between serological and molecular tests for the diagnosis of cattle brucellosis

Iranian Journal of Veterinary Science and Technology

مقالات آماده انتشار، پذیرفته شده، انتشار آنلاین از تاریخ 25 تیر 1404   

نوع مقاله: Research Article

شناسه دیجیتال (DOI): 10.22067/ijvst.2025.89499.1412

نویسندگان

Mehran Ghaemi^{* 1}؛ Mohammad Sadegh Golvajouei²

¹Department of Pathobiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

²Department of Pathobiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Shiraz University, Iran

چکیده

Bovine brucellosis, caused mainly by Brucella abortus, is a significant disease of cows that has created a widespread public health problem in humans. Diagnosis of bovine brucellosis relies on serology, but current serological tests lack sensitivity and, most importantly, specificity. In this study, we tried to compare current bovine brucellosis serological tests in Iran with Brucella spp. antigen detection tests. Also, we examined Brucella species circulating in cows of Fars province, Iran. Additionally, the infection rate of Yersinia entrocolitica O9 strain as a probable interfering agent in Brucella spp. serological tests were evaluated. Supramammary lymph nodes were sampled from 98 Brucella spp. reactor cows of Fars province, Iran, are used for bacterial culture and molecular tests, including conventional, multiplex, and real-time PCRs. Brucella spp. was only isolated from 5.1% of cultured samples and detected in 15 (15.3%) and 21 (21.4%) samples by conventional and real-time PCRs. The species of all Brucella spp. positive samples were determined B. abortus. Most of the seropositive cows were Brucella spp. negative at the time of slaughtering (78.6%) using molecular tests and culture, which showed a high false-positive rate of serological tests for cattle brucellosis. As Y. enterocolitica O9 strain was not detected in any lymph node samples, it could be concluded that immunological cross-reaction with this bacterium was not the reason for the few real-time PCR-positive results among Brucella reactor cows. In conclusion, real-time PCR could provide valuable information about the Brucella species circulating in the slaughtered cows of each region.

کلیدواژه‌ها

Brucella abortus؛ Yersinia entrocolitica؛ real-time PCR؛ serological test