Rapid and accurate screening of cystic echinococcosis in sheep based on serum Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy combined with machine learning algorithms

Cystic echinococcosis (CE) in sheep is a serious zoonotic parasitic disease caused by Echinococcus granulosus sensu stricto (s.s.). Presently, the screening technology for CE in sheep is time-consuming and inaccurate, and novel screening technology is urgently needed. In this work, we combined machine-learning algorithms with Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy of serum to establish a quick and accurate screening approach for CE in sheep. Serum samples from 77 E. granulosus s.s.-infected sheep to 121 healthy control sheep were measured by FT-IR spectrometer. To optimize the classification accuracy of the serum FI-TR method for the E. granulosus s.s.-infected sheep and healthy control sheep, principal component analysis (PCA), linear discriminant analysis, and support vector machine (SVM) algorithms were used to analyze the data. Among all the bands, 1500-1700 cm(-1) band has the best classification effect; its diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of PCA-SVM were 100%, 95.74%, and 96.66%, respectively. The study showed that serum FT-IR spectroscopy combined with machine learning algorithms has great potential for rapid and accurate screening methods for the CE in sheep.