Evaluation of two automated enzyme-immunoassays for detection of thermophilic campylobacters in faecal samples from cattle and swine

We evaluated the performance of two enzyme-immunoassays (EIA) for the detec tion of naturally occurring, thermophilic Campylobacter spp. found in faeca l samples from cattle (n = 21 and n = 26) and swine (n = 43) relative to th e standard culture method, and also assuming that none of the tests was the definitive standard. The primary isolation both for the culture and the EI A methods was carried out by overnight selective enrichment in Preston brot h. The results showed good sensitivities for both EIA methods in cattle (95 % and 84%) and swine (88% and 69%) samples. However, when testing cattle sa mples, EIA-2 method resulted in a rather low specificity (32%). This seemed to be partially due to the isolation of nonthermophilic species. In conclu sion, EIA-1 method may provide a simple and fast tool with good accuracy in cattle and swine samples for automated screening of large number of sample s. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.