Evaluation of the Sensitivity of Three ELISA Tests for the Detection of Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis Infection using Tissue Culture as a Gold Standard

Abstract

The sensitivity of enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) techniques for detection of cattle infected with Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) has been reported to be between 15 and 75%. Nearly all sensitivity evaluations of these ELISAs have utilized fecal-culture positive animals as the gold standard. This approach may result in inflated estimates of sensitivity, because animals in early stages of infection may not shed the bacteria consistently in their feces. The purpose of our study was to establish an estimate of the sensitivity of three ELISA tests for MAP, using sera from dairy cattle that were tissue-culture positive.