Evaluation of counter-immunoelectrophoresis for detection ofsomatic circulating antigen in bovine sera naturally infected toFasciola gigantica.

Diagnosis of fasciolosis is based on antibody or antigen detection in serum. Antigen detection provided early diagnosis of infection. With counterimmunoelectrophoresis (CIEP) antibody or antigen existence can be detected in less than 3 hours. This study assessed this test for diagnosis of Fasciola gigantica antigen in cattle. For this purpose, Fasciola gigantica were collected from liver of infected slaughtered cattles. Somatic antigen was prepared from collected parasites and was injected into 2 healthy rabbits for production of hyperimmuniune sera. For evalution of CIEP totally 20 negative and 40 positive sera were collected from slaughtered cattles. All sera were evaluated for diagnosis of fasciolosis by CIEP for detection of circulating antigen of Fasciola gigantica. Thirty six of forthy infected cattle sera were positive and twenty uninfected cattle sera were negative in CIEP. Sensitivity and specificity of CIEP for detection of Fasciola gigantica antigen were 100% and 90%, respectively. It is concluded that CIEP has acceptable sensitivity and specificity for rapid and early diagnosis of Fasciola gigantica.