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Evaluation of the Sensitivity and Specificity of an Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay for Diagnosing Brucellosis in African Buffalo (Syncerus caffer)

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  • Brucellosis is a disease of veterinary and public health importance worldwide. In sub- Saharan Africa, where this disease has been detected in several free-ranging wildlife species, successful disease control may be dependent on accurate detection in wildlife reservoirs, including African buffalo (Syncerus caffer). This study estimates the sensitivity and specificity of a commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (IDEXX, Brucellosis Serum Ab Test) for brucellosis based on a dataset of 571 serum samples from 258 buffalo located within the Kruger National Park, South Africa. We defined a pseudo-gold standard test result as those buffalo that were consistently positive or negative on two additional serological tests, namely the rose bengal test (RBT) and the complement fixation test (CFT). The ELISA’s cut-off value was selected using receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis, the pseudo-gold standard, and a threshold criterion that maximizes the total sensitivity and specificity. Then, we estimated the sensitivity and specificity of all three tests using Bayesian inference and latent class analysis. We estimated the ELISA to have a sensitivity of 0.928 (95% BCI from 0.869-0.974) and specificity of 0.870 (95% BCI from 0.836-0.900). Compared to the ELISA, the RBT had a higher estimated sensitivity of 0.986 (95% BCI from 0.928- 0.999), and both the RBT and CFT had higher specificities, estimated to be 0.992 (95% BCI from 0.971 to 0.996) and 0.998 (95% BCI from 0.992 to 0.999), respectively. Therefore, this study shows that no single serological test perfectly diagnosed infection. However, after adjustment of cut-off values for South African conditions, the IDEXX Brucellosis Serum Ab Test may be a valuable additional screening test for brucellosis in Kruger National Park’s African buffalo.
  • This is an author's peer-reviewed final manuscript, as accepted by the publisher. The published article is copyrighted by the Wildlife Disease Association and can be found at: http://www.jwildlifedis.org/,This research was approved by Kruger National Park’s Scientific Services committee and by Oregon State University and University of Georgia IACUC (Protocol numbers OSU: 3822; UGA: A201010-190-A1).
  • Keywords: Bayesian, Sensitivity, Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay, Brucellosis, Latent data, African buffalo, Specificity
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  • Gorsich, E. E., Bengis, R. G., Ezenwa, V. O., & Jolles, A. E. (2015). Evaluation of the Sensitivity and Specificity of an Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay for Diagnosing Brucellosis in African Buffalo (Syncerus caffer). Journal of Wildlife Diseases, 51(1), 9-18. doi:10.7589/2013-12-334
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  • 51
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  • 1
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  • This research was supported by the National Science Foundation through a NSF Ecology of Infectious Diseases award to V. Ezenwa and A. Jolles (EF- 0723918, DEB-1102493/EF-0723928), a NSF Graduate Research Fellowship to E. Gorsich, and an NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement award to E. Gorsich (DEB-121094).
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