title: Estimation of sensitivity and specificity of five serological tests for the diagnosis of porcine brucellosis.
abstract: While serological tests are essential in surveillance and control programs of animal diseases, to date none of the common serological tests approved in the EU (complement fixation test or Rose-Bengal test) has been shown to be reliable in routine individual diagnosis of porcine brucellosis, and some more recent tests like ELISA have not been fully evaluated yet. In the absence of a gold standard, this study allowed the estimation of sensitivities and specificities of these tests with a Bayesian approach using Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithms. The pig population that was tested included 6422 animals from Metropolitan France. Serum samples were collected from a large population of pigs, representative of European swine population and tested with five brucellosis serological tests: Rose-Bengal test (RBT), fluorescence polarization assay (FPA), indirect ELISA (I-ELISA) and two competitive ELISAs (C-ELISA). The sensitivity and the specificity of each test were estimated. When doubtful results were excluded, the most sensitive and specific test was C-ELISA(2) (Se C-ELISA(2)=0.964, [0.907; 0.994], 95% credibility interval (CrI); Sp C-ELISA(2)=0.996, [0.982; 1.0], 95% CrI). When doubtful results were considered as negative, C-ELISA(2) was still the most sensitive and specific test (Se C-ELISA(2)=0.960, [0.896; 0.994], 95% CrI and Sp C-ELISA(2)=0.994, [0.977; 0.999], 95% CrI). The same conclusions were reached when doubtful results were considered as positive (Se C-ELISA(2)=0.963, [0.904, 0.994], 95% CrI and Sp C-ELISA(2)=0.996, [0.986; 1.0], 95% CrI).
authors.affiliation: National Veterinary School of Alfort (ENVA)/French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety (ANSES), USC Epidemiology of Animal Infectious Diseases Unit (Epi-MAI), 94700 Maisons-Alfort, France.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Praud
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Gimenez
authors.forename: Gina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zanella
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Dufour
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pozzi
authors.forename: Valérie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Antras
authors.forename: Laurence
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Garin-Bastuji
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000097:blood*; D041021:Brucella suis / Q000276:immunology*; D002006:Brucellosis / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D003168:Complement Fixation Tests / Q000662:veterinary; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Q000662:veterinary; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D012698:Serologic Tests / Q000662:veterinary; D013552:Swine; D013553:Swine Diseases / Q000097:blood* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology
chemical_list: D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial