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Immunochromatographic test and ELISA for the detection of glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) and A/B toxins as an alternative for the diagnosis of Clostridioides (Clostridium) difficile–associated diarrhea in foals and neonatal piglets

  • Veterinary Microbiology - Short Communication
  • Published:
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Abstract

Considering the lack of studies evaluating the performance of commercially available methods for diagnosis of Clostridioides (Clostridium) difficile infection (CDI) in animals, the present study aimed to assess an immunochromatographic test for detection of glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) and A/B toxins of C. difficile, also evaluated by an ELISA kit, in foals and neonatal piglets. Intestinal contents of 47 piglets and feces of 35 foals were tested to GDH antigen and A/B toxins in a lateral flow method (Ecodiagnostica, Brazil). Also, these samples were submitted to A/B toxin detection by an ELISA kit (C. difficile Tox A/B II, Techlab Inc., USA), using the toxigenic culture (TC) as the reference method. The GDH component of the lateral flow test showed sensitivity and negative predictive value (NPV) of 100% and a high specificity in samples of piglets (82.61%) and foals (100%). Detection of A/B toxins using the lateral flow test and the ELISA resulted in a specificity of 100% in samples of both species. On the other hand, the sensibility ranged from 54.2 to 90% for the ELISA and from 12.5 to 60% for the lateral flow test for piglets’ and foals’ samples, respectively. In conclusion, the present work suggests that the lateral flow test for GDH detection could be a useful method for diagnosing CDI in these species. On the other hand, the low sensitivity of the lateral flow test for A/B toxins might compromise its utility in piglets.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Veterinary School, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Antônio Carlos Avenue, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil

    Carolina Pantuzza Ramos, Emily Oliveira Lopes, Carlos Augusto Oliveira Júnior, Amanda Nádia Diniz, Francisco Carlos Faria Lobato & Rodrigo Otávio Silveira Silva

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  1. Carolina Pantuzza Ramos
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  2. Emily Oliveira Lopes
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  3. Carlos Augusto Oliveira Júnior
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  4. Amanda Nádia Diniz
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  5. Francisco Carlos Faria Lobato
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  6. Rodrigo Otávio Silveira Silva
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation and data collection were performed by Emily Oliveira Lopes, Carlos Augusto Oliveira Júnior, and Amanda Nádia Diniz. Analyses were performed by Francisco Carlos Faria Lobato, Rodrigo Otávio Silveira Silva, and Carolina Pantuzza Ramos. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Carolina Pantuzza Ramos, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rodrigo Otávio Silveira Silva.

Ethics declarations

Experimental methods were approved by the institutional ethics committee (CEUA-UFMG), protocol 013/2014.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Statement on the welfare of animals

The present study was performed with fecal samples sent for routine diagnosis of diarrhea. Therefore, this article does not contain any approved ethical committee protocol.

Additional information

Responsible Editor: Miliane Moreira Soares de Souza.

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Ramos, C.P., Lopes, E.O., Oliveira Júnior, C.A. et al. Immunochromatographic test and ELISA for the detection of glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) and A/B toxins as an alternative for the diagnosis of Clostridioides (Clostridium) difficile–associated diarrhea in foals and neonatal piglets. Braz J Microbiol 51, 1459–1462 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42770-020-00275-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42770-020-00275-4

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