PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT OF ELISA, MAT, AND LAT FOR DETECTING TOXOPLASMA GONDII ANTIBODIES IN PIGS

Applicability and sensitivity of the commercial tests MAT (modified agglutination test), LAT (latex agglutination test), in comparison to in-house serologic assay (ELISA), and reference test (indirect fluorescence antibody test, IFAT) to detect specific antibodies against Toxoplasma gondii in pigs were investigated. One hundred and six blood samples were examined. The most specific test, as compared to IFAT, was MAT (100.0%) and the most sensitive test was ELISA (88.9%). LAT showed the least specificity and sensitivity at 91.4%, and 47.2%, respectively, After analysis of the tests with Cohen's Kappa agreement, it was found that IFAT, ELISA and MAT were in high agreement, and LAT was moderately consistent with these tests. Similar results were achieved using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. Our study confirmed the usefulness of the ELISA and MAT, much greater than LAT, for the detecting of T. gondii antibodies in pigs.