Diagnostic performance of a rapid in-clinic test for the detection of Canine Parvovirus under different storage conditions and vaccination status

Abstract

Canine parvovirus (CPV) is one of the most common causes of acute haemorrhagic enteritis in young dogs, while clinical diagnosis is often indecisive. The aim of our study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of an in-clinic rapid test in the detection of CPV infection in dogs. To this end, we compared the Rapid Diagnostic Kit of Canine Parvovirus, Coronavirus and Rotavirus antigen (Quicking(®)) to PCR, which is considered as the most reliable diagnostic method. A total of 78 duplicated faecal samples were collected from diarrhoeic dogs. Vaccination history within a month prior to the onset of diarrhoea was reported for 12 of the sampled dogs. The rapid diagnostic test was performed in 23 of the faecal samples directly, while the rest were placed into a sterile cotton tipped swab suitable for collection and transportation of viruses (Sigma Σ-VCM(®)) and stored at -20 °C. The sensitivity of the Quicking rapid diagnostic test compared to PCR in the total number of samples, in samples from non-vaccinated dogs and in samples tested directly after collection were 22.22% (95% CI: 13.27-33.57%), 26.67% (95% CI: 16.08-39.66%) and 76.47% (95% CI: 50.10-93.04%) respectively, while the specificity of the test was 100% in any case. In conclusion, negative results do not exclude parvoenteritis from the differential diagnosis, especially in dogs with early vaccination history, but a positive result almost certainly indicates CPV infection. An improved sensitivity may be expected when the test is performed immediately.

Serum protein electrophoretic profile in diarrheic neonatal calves

“…Similar observations regarding the presence of high antibody titers in the gut lumen that sequestrated viral particles have also been reported in canine parvoviral diarrhea (Desario et al 2005, Kantere et al 2015.…”

Role of canine circovirus in dogs with acute haemorrhagic diarrhoea

“…PCR has a higher sensitivity than immunochromatographic tests (Proksch and others 2015). In addition, PCR is still positive after storage of faecal samples, while immunochromatographic tests might turn falsely negative after storage at −20°C (Kantere and others 2015). …”

Reliability of clinical diagnosis and laboratory testing techniques currently used for identification of canine parvovirus enteritis in clinical settings

“…nPCR is considered a highly reliable and sensitive technique to identify CPV-2 viral particles [ 11 , 13 ], and therefore, in this study, the sensitivity of the used tests was correlated to those obtained previously from nPCR, for CPV-2 diagnosis.…”