Kinetics of antibodies after a trypanocid treatment in experimentally or naturally infected cattle. Epidemiology interest

Abstract

The kinetics of anti-trypanosome antibodies was studied by indirect immunofluorescence (IFI) and ELISA tests in cattle experimentally infected by Trypanosoma congolense or naturally infected in an area with a great tsetse pressure. The antibodies were not discerned in the plasma of the animals four months after the ELISA test and six months after with the IFI method. These results are of epidemiological interest. In fact, it is likely that the positive sera corresponded to an active infection (in the absence of a cross reaction) if no trypanocid treatment had been applied for 4 or 6 months in accordance with the technique used.