title: Mannosylated lipoarabinomannan in serum as a biomarker candidate for subclinical bovine tuberculosis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Early and unambiguous detection of bovine tuberculosis (bTB), a significant disease of cattle worldwide, is necessary to control the spread of infection to other animals and humans. Current testing strategies are laborious, time consuming and heavily reliant on host responses that do not distinguish bTB from other mycobacteria. We report the presence of a pathogen signature, liparabinomannan (LAM), as a potential biomarker for bTB infection.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Fifty-five animals (uninfected [n = 33], bTb [n = 10] and exposed cases [n = 12]) from a well characterized bovine serum repository were screened for the presence of LAM using a commercially available ELISA. Analysis showed that LAM had a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 91.7% for bTB detection (bTB positive versus bTB exposed animals).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  LAM detection easily separated bTB infected animals from bTB exposed and negative controls. We propose that pathogen related markers, such as LAM, should be included with current testing strategies as a battery diagnostic for bTB.
authors.forename: Elise A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Lamont
authors.forename: João
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ribeiro-Lima
authors.forename: Wade Ray
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Waters
authors.forename: Tyler
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Thacker
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Population Medicine, University of Minnesota, St, Paul, Minnesota, USA. sreev001@umn.edu.
authors.forename: Srinand
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sreevatsan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood*; D002417:Cattle; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides / Q000097:blood* / Q000737:chemistry; D008358:Mannose / Q000737:chemistry*; D014380:Tuberculosis, Bovine / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides; C050016:lipoarabinomannan; D008358:Mannose