Diagnosis of Babesia bigemina with the immunoperoxidase assay

Abstract

An immunoperoxidase assay for the serological diagnosis of Babesia bigemina was developed. The antigen slides were prepared from B. bigemina -infected blood and stored at - 20 °C. One hundred and sixty five sera were tested, comparing the immunoperoxidase assay to the indirect fluorescent antibody test. A coincidence of 95 % was observed between both tests. For the immunoperoxidase assay, a relative sensitivity of 94.8 %, a relative specificity of 95.5 %, and a positive predictive value of 96.8 % were calculated. The results demonstrated the efficacy of this technique for detecting antibodies to B. bigemina.