Comparison of complement fixation test, immunoblotting, indirect ELISA, and competitive ELISA for detecting antibodies to Mycoplasma mycoides subspecies mycoides small colony (SC) in naturally infected cattle from the 1995 outbreak in Botswana

Four serological tests were compared in order to evaluate their efficacies in detecting antibodies to M. mycoides subspecies mycoides SC in cattle sera sampled in 1995 from herds affected with contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP) in the north-western part of Botswana. Tests that were compared included immunoblotting test (IBT), indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (i-ELISA), competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (c-ELISA) and complement fixation test (CFT). The percentages of seropositive samples in the iELISA (48%) and in the c-ELISA (48%) were similar but were comparatively lower than those obtained by the IBT (57%) and CFT (61%). The percentages of positive sera in the IBT and CFT were also similar and overall the efficacy of these tests was better than that of the two ELISA tests. There was 95.5% agreement between the IBT and CFT, 85% agreement between the IBT and c-ELISA, 90.9% agreement between the IBT and i-ELISA, 88.6% agreement between the i-ELISA and CFT, 80% agreement between the c-ELISA and CFT and 90% agreement between the two ELISA tests. It became clearly evident from this comparative study that no single serological test was capable of detecting all animals affected by CBPP under natural field conditions of infection.