Sr. Manager, Immunology R&D Antech Diagnostics Brownsburg, Indiana, United States
Abstract:
Background: Antibody testing for tick-borne pathogens is the main screening method used by veterinarians in dogs. With the expanding range and abundance of tick vectors, and the incursion of new tick-borne pathogen species and strains into the United States (US) and Canada, screening tests need to be continuously updated and evaluated for performance.
Objectives: To perform a field validation of updated Anaplasma and Ehrlichia spp. peptides on a commercially available silicon surface multiplex immunoassay (SSMIA) screening platform (Accuplex®, Antech Diagnostics, Inc., Mars Petcare Science & Diagnostics), and compare SSMIA to public prevalence data obtained from the Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC) website. Animals: A total of 2,031 anonymized canine remnant serum samples from five North-Eastern US states, submitted to a veterinary reference laboratory, were evaluated.
Methods: CAPC data sets from the capcvet.org website for 5 US states were obtained, and these pathogen prevalence results compared to samples evaluated by the SSMIA platform with updated peptides detecting antibodies for A. phagocytophilum, A. platys and E. canis, E. chaffeensis, and E. ewingi from the same five US states and time frame.
Results: The updated SSMIA platform detected higher proportion positives for Anaplasma and Ehrlichia spp. as compared to CAPC data (Table).
Conclusions: The SSMIA screening platform with updated Anaplasma and Ehrlichia spp. peptides detected higher tick-borne pathogen antibodies in dogs as compared to those reported through CAPC. These results highlight the need for continuous performance evaluation, and field validation, of screening tests, to reflect current tick-borne pathogens in the US and Canada.
