EFFICACY OF IMMUNOLOGICAL PROTOCOL TO APPRAISE THE DIAGNOSIS OF AMPHISTOME INFECTION IN LIVESTOCK

Parasites are a major cause of disease in domestic ruminants. More than half the livestock population live in misery and suffer vast economic losses due to parasites. Among the parasitic diseases, amphistomosis is one of the major parasitic diseases causing heavy economic losses to livestock industry. Livestock production can be increased by the reduction of losses due to disease and development of new immunological approaches. Immunodiagnosis of parasitic diseases requires highly sensitive and specific tests. In many cases the identification of helminth parasites concerns their epidemiology and it is important to distinguish between species and subspecies. Conventional techniques including serology and microscopy do not always meet these requirements. However, microscopy still remain the mainstay of several diagnostic laboratories. Development of diagnostic tools have opened new avenues for a vast improvement in parasitic disease detection. Anumber of new serology-based assays that are highly specific and sensitive have emerged, such as agar gel precipitation, agglutination, immunodiffusion (ID), counter current immunoelectrophoresis (CCIEP), FAST-ELISA, Dot-ELISA, Sandwich-ELISA, Plate-ELISA, SDS-PAGE, Western blotting, immunoblotting etc. These approaches have revealed potentiality in parasitic disease diagnosis such as amphistome infection with increased specificity and sensitivity. The use of immunodiagnostic approaches in the identification of paramphistome infection in livestock is discussed.