Evaluation of Mycobacterium bovis MPT-64 recombinant antigens for diagnosis of Bovine tuberculosis

The bovine tuberculosis is one of the most zoonotic diseases which could be infected domestic and wild animals. The causative agent of this infection is Mycobacterium bovis. The correct diagnosis is very critical for effective control of this infection. The usual diagnosis is made by skin test and gamma interferon assay. But other serological techniques based on ELISA could be noted for development of a rapid and correct method. Here, we use MPT-64 recombinant protein as capture antigens for development of an indirect ELISA. The study population consists of thirty two infected and healthy (control) cattle. The infected animals were confirmed by resident veterinary surgeon according to skin test and clinical examination. The levels of specific antibody against MPT-64 were evaluated by indirect ELISA method. According to our results, the levels of specific antibodies against MPT-64 have great consistency with skin test. So that, all of 9 positive samples have high titer for MPT-64 specific antibody and no false negative results have been reported. This study could proposed that development of ELISA method with recombinant MPT-64 antigen could be considered as a rapid, simple and exact method for detection of BTB infected cattle.