A lymphocyte transformation assay for the detection of Mycobacterium bovisinfection in the Eurasian Badger (Meles meles)

The Eurasian badger (Meles meles) is a significant wildlife reservoir of My cobacterium bovis in Great Britain. Improved control strategies against the disease in badgers require the development of diagnostic tests and vaccine s. Here, we report the development of a comparative lymphocyte transformati on assay (LTA) using bovine and avian tuberculin as antigen to detect cell- mediated responses in M. bovis-infected badgers. In a pilot study, the perf ormance of this assay was compared with the existing indirect ELISA assay f or the detection of tuberculous badgers. The sensitivity of the Comparative LTA was 87.5% compared with 62.5% for the indirect ELISA whereas the ELISA test gave a greater specificity (100% compared with 84.6% for the comparat ive LTA). Preliminary evidence suggests that for the comparative LTA, the b lood may be stored overnight prior to testing and that this procedure might improve the specificity of the assay without compromising the sensitivity. Crown (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.