Seroprevalence of Fasciola gigantica Infection in Bovines Using Cysteine Proteinase Dot Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay

Aim: The objective of the present study was to know the seroprevalence status of Fasciola gigantica infection in cattle and buffaloes using cysteine proteinase (CP) antigen in dot enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) format under field conditions.
Materials and Methods: As per the standard protocol, the sera were collected from the blood of 112 cattle and 38 buffaloes of coastal areas of Navsari district, South Gujarat, India. The indirect ELISA was performed on the strip of nitrocellulose paper blotted with 1 μl of CP antigen, to detect F. gigantica seropositive animals.
Results: The native CP of F. gigantica revealed a single visible band on 10% sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. There was no any noted cross-reaction between the selected antigen and sera of Gastrothylax crumenifer-infected animals in ELISA. Out of 150 screened bovines, the sera of 47 (31.33%) were found to be reactive in dot-ELISA, with a prevalence rate of 31.25% and 31.58% in cattle and buffaloes, respectively. The seropositive bovines with heavy, moderate, and light level of infection were 44.68%, 34.04%, and 21.28%, respectively (p<0.05 between heavy and light; p>0.05 between moderate and heavy or light). The share of F. gigantica seropositive and negative animals was 31% and 69%, respectively. The optical density at 450 nm of pooled sera of seropositive bovines with heavy, moderate, and light reactivity in plate-ELISA was significantly higher with field or reference negative sera.
Conclusion: The CP-based dot-ELISA can be useful for field veterinarians for quick and timely isolation of the animals requiring urgent flukicide therapy.