Bovine TB: Research project summary
Project SE3217: Kinetics of skin test response in bovine tuberculosis
Project Duration: 1 year
The aim of this study was to analyse the kinetics of the immune response to Bovine tuberculosis (bTB), using experimental infection, to investigate the effects of repeat skin testing and support future strategies for diagnosis by furthering the development of immunoassays that could be applied in the field. The results indicated that the time to develop a diagnostic test response for the intradermal tuberculin test (TT) and IFN-y assay currently used were the same (3 weeks). The results additionally showed that following a repeated TT, anergy is likely to be a rare occurrence. Tests run during the study showed that infection detected using the IFN-y assay may be masked during the week post TT due to some animals having a transiently boosted avian response. Furthermore, the Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis) specific peptides ESAT-6 and CFP-10 tested for assaying IFN-y responses during infection have shown potential as alternative diagnostic antigens. Overall, the results from this study may provide a foundation to re-evaluate the M. bovis testing program.
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July 7, 2008