Abstract

Comparative efficacy of three serodiagnostic tests (RBPT, STAT and Dot ELISA) in detecting anti - Brucella antibodies in sera was evaluated on a total of twenty eight serum samples which included eighteen samples from brucellosis suspected and 10 from normal healthy (brucellosis unaffected) cattle. Out of eighteen sera from suspected cases, only one (5.55%) sample was found positive by STAT and 9 (50%) samples were positive by RBPT, whereas Dot ELISA could detect antibodies in all the eighteen (100%) samples. Interestingly, RBPT could detect antibodies in ten out of seventeen (58.82%) samples found negative by STAT. The entire nine samples positive by RBPT (100%) showed positive results with Dot ELISA also. Of the nine RBPT negative samples, 11.25% showed positive and 88.88% showed negative results by STAT while all the nine samples (100%) showed positive results with Dot ELISA. All the ten sera from normal healthy animals were negative by RBPT, STAT and ELISA. Thus, Dot ELISA was found to be the most sensitive of the three tests used. It is, however, suggested that in order to get a fool proof diagnosis of Brucella infection, a combination of RBPT and Dot ELISA should be used, especially in case of samples found negative by either RBPT or STAT used alone or in combination.

Key words: Brucellosis, RBPT, STAT, Dot ELISA, Brucella.