Evaluation of fluorescence polarization assay (FPA) and rose Bengal plate test in serum treated with rivanol (RB-RIV) for the serological diagnosis of swine brucellosis

• Grant number: 09/54637-4
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: March 01, 2010
• End date: February 28, 2011
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine - Preventive Veterinary Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Luis Antonio Mathias
• Grantee: Luis Antonio Mathias
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias (FCAV). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Jaboticabal. Jaboticabal , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Although the prevalence rate of swine brucellosis had decreased in Brazil, the infection is not eradicated, as shown by an outbreak occurred in Jaboticabal, state of São Paulo, in 2006. Due to the importance of this infection for animal and public health, efforts must continue to study and to control it. In Brazil the program to control and eradicate bovine brucellosis prescribes as diagnostic tools the rose Bengal as screening test and the complement fixation test or the standard agglutination tube test plus the mercaptoethanol test for the confirmatory diagnosis. There is no a program specifically designed to fight swine brucellosis, but the rules for certification of herds establishes for the diagnosis the same techniques used for the diagnosis in cattle, and these techniques had several disadvantages. Because of these reasons, this investigation had the purpose of evaluate the rose Bengal test after treating the serum with rivanol and the fluorescence polarization assay for the serological diagnosis of swine brucellosis, comparing the results with those of the tests officially used in Brazil. To evaluate the tests, 330 serum samples obtained from a Brucella suis infected herd and 1,000 samples from swine herds free of brucellosis, obtained in slaughterhouses will be tested. (AU)