DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence for Biomedical Tuberculosis Research, SAMRC Centre for Tuberculosis Research, Division of Molecular Biology and Human Genetics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Tygerberg, South Africa.
Afrivet Business Management, Newmark Estate Office Park, Pretoria, South Africa.
Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2022 Sep 16;12:989209. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2022.989209. eCollection 2022.
() infection has been identified in both domestic and wild animals and may threaten the conservation of vulnerable species including African lions (). There is a need to develop accurate ante-mortem tools for detection of infection in African big cat populations for wildlife management and disease surveillance. The aim of this study was to compare the performances of two immunological assays, the QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus (QFT) Mabtech Cat interferon gamma release assay (IGRA) and QFT gene expression assay (GEA), which have both shown diagnostic potential for detection in African lions. Lion whole blood (n=47), stimulated using the QFT platform, was used for measuring antigen-specific expression and IFN-γ production and to assign infection status. A subset (n=12) of mycobacterial culture-confirmed infected and uninfected African lions was used to compare the agreement between the immunological diagnostic assays. There was no statistical difference between the proportions of test positive African lions tested by the QFT Mabtech Cat IGRA compared to the QFT GEA. There was also a moderate association between immunological diagnostic assays when numerical results were compared. The majority of lions had the same diagnostic outcome using the paired assays. Although the QFT Mabtech Cat IGRA provides a more standardized, commercially available, and cost-effective test compared to QFT GEA, using both assays to categorize infection status in lions will increase confidence in results.
（）感染已在国内外的野生动物中被发现，可能会威胁到包括非洲狮（）在内的脆弱物种的保护。因此，需要开发出准确的、用于检测非洲大型猫科动物种群中（）感染的、前置工具，以便于进行野生动物管理和疾病监测。本研究的目的是比较两种免疫测定法的性能，即 QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus（QFT）Mabtech 猫干扰素释放测定法（IGRA）和 QFT 基因表达测定法（GEA），这两种方法都已显示出在非洲狮中检测（）的诊断潜力。使用 QFT 平台刺激狮子全血（n=47），用于测量抗原特异性（）表达和 IFN-γ 产生，并确定（）感染状态。使用结核分枝杆菌培养确认的感染和未感染的非洲狮的子集（n=12）来比较免疫诊断测定法之间的一致性。与 QFT GEA 相比，用 QFT Mabtech 猫 IGRA 检测的呈阳性的非洲狮比例之间没有统计学差异。当比较数值结果时，免疫诊断测定法之间也存在中度关联。使用配对检测时，大多数狮子的诊断结果相同。虽然与 QFT GEA 相比，QFT Mabtech 猫 IGRA 提供了更标准化、商业上可行且更具成本效益的检测方法，但同时使用这两种检测方法来分类狮子的（）感染状态将提高结果的可信度。
