utility of direct agglutination [DAT] and fast agglutination screening [FAST] tests in serodiagnosis of experimental microsporidiosis

ABSTRACT

The present study was designed to evaluate the efficiency of two serodiagnostic tests; the direct agglutination test [DAT] and the fast agglutination screening test [FAST] in the diagnosis of Microsporidia in experimentally infected mice and to differentiate between different species of the parasite. The swiss albino mice were divided into non infected control and infected experimental groups which were further subdivided into ten subgroups. Ten samples of microsporidial spores were isolated from ten human stools and each one was used to infect each subgroup of mice. Stool and sera were collected weekly from each subgroup from the 1[st] to the 4[th] week post infection [PI]. DAT and FAST tests, using antigen prepared from the different species of microsporidial spores were used to detect antibodies in sera of different mice subgroups. The cross reactivity of microsporidial spores with the antibodies of Cyclospora cyatenensis and Cryptosporidium parvum was investigated by DAT and FAST. The results proved that DAT and FAST were effective in detecting microsporidial antibodies in sera of experimentally infected mice from the 2[nd] week PI till the end of the study, without cross reactivity with C. cyatenensis or C. parvum. They failed to differentiate between different Microspoiridia species used but, they gave good interpretation and they were specific and sensitive, and did not need sophisticated equipments