Rabbit samples were obtained from a national multicenter study which systematically included patients with suspected encephalitozoonosis from 46 veterinary clinics in the USA over two periods, February 2015 to August 2015 and February 2016 to August 2016, at the time of their first medical visit. Results were compared to a previously validated ELISA method of IgG and IgM quantitation. cuniculi immunoglobulin G (IgG) and IgM antibodies and to quantify the level of immune response in rabbits. The goal of this study was to assess the feasibility and the diagnostic performance of Western blot (WB) analysis to detect both specific anti- E. cuniculi infection in rabbits but also in other species (Künzel et al. Thus, new tools are needed to enhance the diagnostic accuracy of E. Consequently, specific diagnosis can be difficult to obtain and therefore fatal outcomes and advanced disease are frequent: in some studies, it has been reported that rabbits overall recover in only 50% cases when undergoing anti- E cuniculi treatment, although the results actually depend on the affected organs, since uveitis and encephalitis may be considered globally more curable than chronic renal failure (Künzel et al.

Except for diagnosis of phacoclastic uveitis, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has not been routinely implemented, and preliminary evidence suggests a low sensitivity (Csokai et al. Recently, C-reactive protein (CRP) measurement has been proposed in association with the ELISA tests to increase their specificity for detecting current infection (Cray et al. cuniculi infection since antibodies remain for several years, including immunoglobulin M (IgM) that are usually detectable up to 18 weeks post-exposure (Khan et al. However, there is difficulty in distinguishing between recent or past E. In studies of experimental and natural infections, serology tests were shown to correlate well with histopathological lesions (Waller 1977 Cox et al. Current serology techniques include enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and immunofluorescence antibody test (IFAT) (Boot et al. cuniculi spores shedding in excreta are intermittent and their detection is therefore unreliable (Csokai et al. Definitive antemortem diagnosis is difficult because E. However, except for phacoclastic uveitis, no clinical sign is considered pathognomonic enough to exclude differential diagnoses including bacterial infection or injury. Kidneys are considered a primary target tissue, and neurological signs due to that granulomatous encephalitis are subsequently reported during later stages (Künzel and Joachim 2010). It may be either subclinical or clinical with acute signs or chronic expressions which define the active disease called encephalitozoonosis (Keeble 2011). 2009 Künzel and Joachim 2010 Keeble 2011 Cray et al. cuniculi infection is a great concern in pet rabbits in which seroprevalence rates have been estimated from 37 to 68% (Harcourt-Brown and Holloway 2003 Cray et al. In addition, this tool may help to further understand the development and function of the humoral immune response to this infectious agent.Įncephalitozoon cuniculi is a unicellular microorganism related to fungi that invades mammalian cells where its spores thrive (Mathis et al. Therefore, the quantitative WB may have application in veterinary diagnostic laboratories to increase the accuracy of the clinical diagnosis of E. Several specific WB bands were shown to be significantly associated with concomitant clinical signs, like the one located at 50 kDa (OR = 8.2,, P = 0.0008) for IgG and (OR = 27.9,, P = 0.0006) for IgM. Although it was more labor intensive and less standardized, quantitative WB provided detailed comparable analysis regarding the humoral response and diagnostic performance similar to ELISA testing with statistically higher sensitivity (88.4 vs. cuniculi-related diseased status ( P < 0.0001). Positive WB results were highly correlated with the E. cuniculi immunoglobulin G (IgG) and immunoglobulin M (IgM) in comparison with ELISA and to address the intensity of the immune response through a quantitative approach. In this study, we assessed the diagnostic performance of Western blot (WB) to detect both anti- E. However, these conventional techniques suffer from a lack of accuracy for distinguishing active from past infections, as a positive serostatus is common in clinically normal rabbits. ELISA or immunofluorescence assays are the current reference standards of serological tests. Diagnosis of Encephalitozoon cuniculi infection in rabbits remains a major veterinary issue.

Western blot test and elisa test