Development of lateral flow-through technique for the diagnosis of cystic echinococcosis in buffaloes

Cystic echinococcosis (hydatidosis) is regarded as one of the important zoonotic parasitic diseases of public health importance and economic significance. Hydatidosis in buffaloes is a major cause of concern owing to which development of a lateral flow-through (LFT) technique has been attempted. In the present study, of the 180 buffalo carcasses, 13 showed the presence of hydatid cysts giving a positivity of 7.22%. Hydatid cyst fluid antigen was prepared for screening the sera samples of buffaloes for presence of hydatid antibodies by LFT. To assess the efficacy of LFT, standard enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was performed. Upon comparison with ELISA, the LFT detected 64 sera samples as positive and 86 sera samples as negative. The sensitivity of LFT was 81.9% and specificity was 93.58%. The kappa analysis of the LFT revealed that the results of the developed technique had substantial agreement with that of ELISA, and can be performed without any sophisticated aid.