Authors : I.M. Ahmed, S. Khairani-Bejo, L. Hassan, A.R. Bahaman and A.R. Omar
Abstract: The potential diagnostic ability of Recombinant Outer Membrane Proteins (rOMPs), a combination of equal concentrations of rOMP25, rOMP28 and rOMP31of Brucella melitensis was investigated using Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) to differentiate the False Positive Serological Reactions (FPSR) in the serological diagnosis of caprine brucellosis. The rOMPs was tested using sera from three groups of goats with known Brucella exposure status which represent, naturally B. melitensis infected goats (infected), Brucella free goats (non-infected) and goats vaccinated with B. melitensis Rev. 1 vaccine strain (vaccinated). Additionally, all the sera were tested using the common serological tests which are Rose Bengal Plate Test (RBPT), BRUCELISA-400SG and Complement Fixation Test (CFT). When testing infected and non infected groups, the rOMPs I-ELISA recorded 94.44% (34/36) sensitivity and 100% (36/36) specificity and this almost agreed with the results obtained from testing the same serum samples using RBPT, BRUCELISA-400SG and CFT. However, when goats vaccinated with B. melitensis Rev. 1 vaccine strain were tested by the common serological tests, RBPT, BRUCELISA-400SG and CFT they wrongly recorded positive results for all the tested serum samples (26/26). While the developed rOMPs I-ELISA was able to differentiate the vaccinated from infected animals with 94.44 sensitivity and 84.62% specificity. The potential diagnostic ability of rOMPs would be of great importance as serologic marker to minimize the FPSR in eradication programs of caprine brucellosis.
I.M. Ahmed, S. Khairani-Bejo, L. Hassan, A.R. Bahaman and A.R. Omar, 2014. Recombinant Outer Membrane Proteins (rOMPs) of Brucella melitensis as a Potential Serological Marker for Diagnosis of Caprine Brucellosis. Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 13: 231-235.