Comparison of Three Rapid Commercial Canine Parvovirus Antigen Detection Tests with Electron Microscopy and Polymerase Chain Reaction

Abstract

Abstract. Different antibody-based tests for rapid detection of Canine parvovirus antigens in feces are commercially available, allowing quick diagnosis in a clinical setting. However, the diagnostic accuracy of these tests compared with standard methods has not been evaluated so far. In the current study, 3 commercial tests were compared with immune-electron microscopy (IEM) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Dogs were divided into 3 groups: group A, samples from dogs with acute hemorrhagic diarrhea (n 5 50); group B, dogs with chronic diarrhea (n 5 10); and group C, dogs with no evidence of gastrointestinal disease (n 5 40). Specificity of all 3 commercial tests versus PCR and IEM was good to excellent (92.2-100%). Sensitivity, in contrast, was poor: 15.8-26.3% versus PCR and 50-60% versus IEM. In group A, 10 dogs were positive by IEM and 24 dogs were positive by PCR. Positive PCR results were also obtained from animals in control groups (group B, 1 dog; group C, 5 dogs). No dog in group B or C was positive by IEM. In conclusion, the rapid tests are useful to diagnose canine parvoviral enteritis, but they do not rule out parvovirus infection in an animal with typical clinical signs. In addition, a small percentage of healthy dogs and dogs with chronic diarrhea showed positive PCR results; this may be due to asymptomatic/persistent infection or intestinal passage of virus. The significance of this finding remains unclear.

A Ten-Year Molecular Survey on Parvoviruses Infecting Carnivores in Bulgaria

“…Surprisingly, there was a good correlation between in‐clinic and molecular testing, which is in contrast with the results of previous studies, showing a lack of sensitivity of the rapid assays (Desario et al., ; Schmitz et al., ; Decaro et al., , ). However, it could not be ruled out that most practitioners sent us only the in‐clinic assay positive samples, which may have also overestimated the real prevalence of parvovirus infections in dogs and cats with acute gastroenteritis.…”

Treatment of Aseptic Dogs with Hemorrhagic Gastroenteritis with Amoxicillin/Clavulanic Acid: A Prospective Blinded Study

“…Because no band neutrophils were evident on the repeated CBC in either dog, parvovirosis was more likely despite the initial negative fecal parvovirus antigen test. Fecal antigen tests have a low sensitivity (15.8–26.3%) compared with polymerase chain reaction testing 40 . Therefore, parvovirus infection might have been undetected in these 2 dogs.…”

Antigenic typing of canine parvovirus using differential PCR

“…Out Canine parvovirus using differential PCR 485 [11,20,29,30] who stated that nested PCR being more sensitive than conventional PCR. Our results are too in tandem with that of the earlier reports indicating increased number of positive cases when PCR product was used in nested PCR.…”