Abstract

Mycoplasma bovis is associated with several clinical syndromes of cattle. Currently, limited information is available on the sensitivity (Se) and specificity (Sp) of serological assays used for the detection of M. bovis-specific antibodies. Consequently, it is difficult to critically evaluate the outcomes of studies that use these assays. Therefore, the current study used bovine sera sourced from M. bovis exposure studies from three countries to estimate the Se and Sp of two commercial M. bovis enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA), BIO K302 and BIO K260, and Western blotting. Western blotting had the highest Se estimate of 74% (95% confidence interval (CI): 16–98%), compared to the BIO K302: 47% (95% CI: 10–87%) and BIO K260: 28% (95% CI: 1–92%). However, for Sp, the BIO K302: 96% (95% CI: 87–99%) and the BIO K260: 100% (95% CI: 93–100%) out-performed Western blotting: 88% (95% CI: 56–98%). Western blotting was the best assay for detecting seroconversion, correctly identifying 61% (95% CI: 29–86%) of exposed animals compared to 35% for BIO K302 (95% CI: 21–54%) and 8% for BIO K260 (95% CI: 0–87%). While none of the methods assessed had high Se and Sp, the availability of these estimates will aid in the interpretation of studies that use these assays. The results of this study highlight the difficulties encountered when using serology to detect exposure to M. bovis in cattle.

Highlights

  • Mycoplasma bovis is an important pathogen of cattle which has been associated with a number of clinical conditions in calves and has increasingly been recognised as a contributor to respiratory disease in older cattle and bison, identifying it as an emerging bovine pathogen [1,2,3,4,5]

  • BIO K302 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA): All the negative and positive controls provided in the BIO K302 and BIO

  • The M. bovis positive control samples from the BIO K284 assays all tested negative in this assay (Table 4)

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Summary

Objectives

The aim of the current study was to estimate the Se and Sp of two commercially available M. bovis

Methods
Results
Discussion
Conclusion

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