The approved official diagnostic tests for bovine tuberculosis (bTB) used in Ireland are the Single Intradermal Comparative Tuberculin Test (SICTT) and the interferon-gamma (IFN-) assay. Official tests are those tests listed in the Animal Health Law approved for national eradication programmes. The Enferplex bovine TB antibody test is not an official test.
A study has been conducted which explored whether there was any added diagnostic benefit from applying the Enferplex bTB test (an antibody test) in severe bTB herd breakdowns after the removal of cattle that had tested positive to the SICTT and the IFN- test.
In addition to the normal bTB testing and management protocols, the animals in these herds that tested negative to SICTT and the IFN- test were observed for a period of two years. All animals were tested by Enferplex at enrolment. The time to subsequent bTB detection (diagnosed with SICTT/IFN- tests or detection of visible lesions at routine slaughter) for animals that tested positive or negative to the Enferplex bTB test at the start of the study was compared using Kaplan–Meier survival curves and Cox based survival models.
Of the 484 enrolled animals (from 11 herds), 171 (35.3%) and 151 (31.1%) initially tested positive in the Enferplex assay under the high sensitivity and high specificity interpretation settings respectively. The results of the survival analysis showed that there was no difference in the survival time to a positive diagnosis with bTB during the follow-up period between animals initially classified as positive and negative by the Enferplex test. This study was published in a peer reviewed scientific journal and is publicly available. We have concluded that the Enferplex test is not appropriate for current epidemiological conditions in Ireland.
We await with interest peer review publication of a UK study on the use of Enferplex as a bulk milk antibody test.
