Abstract Book of EAVLD2012 - eavld congress 2012

S4 - P - 11
EFFECTIVE TESTING STRATEGY WITH PRIMAGAM ® FOR TUBERCULOSIS IN HUMAN PRIMATES
Björn Schröder 2 , Christian Wenker 1 , Stefan Hoby 1 , Bettina Bernhard 2 , Alex J. Raeber 2
1 Zoo Basel, Switzerland and 2 Prionics AG, Schlieren, Switzerland
Introduction
Primates infected with tuberculosis (TB) represent a serious
regulatory, ethical and health concern as TB control requires
accurate diagnostic methods. However, the primary test, the
tuberculin skin test has serious limitations. Both false negative
and false positive reactions are common, resulting in a spread of
infection and devastating TB outbreaks in colonies. As a gold
standard for TB diagnostic is not available, a combination of test
systems has been suggested to reliably diagnose the disease. In
primates the skin test should be conducted as a primary test but
should always be accompanied in the early and mid term phases
of the disease by the IFN- release assay as the most
appropriate test system. As late stage diagnostic tools,
serological and direct tests may provide additional diagnostic
benefits.
In 2010, the Basel ZOO relocated all human primates to an
external facility during the construction phase of a new primate
house. The occasion was used to test all animals for TB before
movement of the animals and following their resettlement in the
new primate house. The Guideline for the prevention and control
of tuberculosis in non-human primates 1 was used as the basis for
the test schedule
Materials & methods
Lelystad tuberculin PPD antigens (Prionics, The Netherlands)
were used for stimulation of whole blood cultures. The release of
IFN- from PBMCs was measured with the PRIMAGAM ®
(Prionics, Switzerland) sandwich enzyme immunoassay (EIA).
Diagnostic sensitivity was assessed in primate colonies of
unknown Tb status.
Results
Here we report the TB test results from three human primate
colonies from the Basel ZOO. Seven Orangutans, six Gorillas
and eight Chimpanzees have been initially tested with two
different skin tests, two IFN- tests (one was PRIMAGAM ® ), two
antibody tests and thoracic x-ray. Animals which were negative
for all test results were considered as TB free. Animals that
tested positive in at least one test system were required to
undergo further monitoring. One Chimpanzee was tested positive
in more than one test. After relocation all reactors were tested a
second time, whereas all animals were negative tested with
PRIMAGAM ® .
Discussion & conclusions
We have compared the diagnostic performance of tuberculin
PPD for the stimulation of blood cultures in PRIMAGAM ® IFN-
assay. In the presentation we will highlight the differences of
different test systems and point out how and when the different
tests should be conducted and how PRIMAGAM ®
can help to
optimize the TB diagnostic in primates.
References
1. Guideline for the prevention and control of tuberculosis in non-human
primates: recommendations of the European primate veterinary
association working group on Tuberculosis, M. Bushmitz; A. Lecu; F.
Verreck; E. Preussing; S. Rensing; K. Rensing; J. Med Primatol, 38, 59-69,
2009)
Tuberculosis, Primagam, tuberculin,