Vol. 45, No. 4, 2001 content next

A STUDY ON ANTIBODY PREVALENCE DUE TO MICROSPORIDIAN Encephalitozoon cuniculi IN DOGS (Canis familiaris) USING INDIRECT IMMUNOFLUORESCENCE

Štefkovič, M., Maslej, P.,* Halánová, M.,* Valenčáková, A., Bálent, P.

University of Veterinary Medicine
Komenského 73
041 81 Košice
The Slovak Republic		 *Faculty of Medicine
P. J. Šafárik University
Moyzesova 11
041 76 Košice
The Slovak Republic

Summary

The presence of specific serum antibodies to Encephalitozoon cuniculi was studied in a group of 178 dogs from Eastern Slovakia. The indirect fluorescence of antibodies (IFA) was chosen as the diagnostic method. The entire cell corpuscular antigen of the in vitro microsporidia grown and swine anti-dog FITC-conjugated immunoglobulin was used in the IFA test.
The animals whose sera reacted by immunofluorescence in a titre of at least 1:20 were considered positive. Specific anti-E. cuniculi antibodies were found in 53 out of 178 dogs investigated (29.8 %). Two thirds of the serum positive samples (37 out of 53) were in the lower titre range of 1:20 to 1:40. Sixteen dogs were seropositive at a dilution of from 1:80 to 1:320. The other 125 dogs (70.2 %) showed seronegative reactions.
Our screening results indicated, that the IFA test is a very sensitive method for the detection of early microsporidian infection in dogs and for the indication of very small amounts of specific post-infection antibodies.

Key words: microsporidia; Encephalitozoon cuniculi; dogs; serological survey; indirect immunofluorescence

References

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Folia Veterinaria / 2001