Technology Details:
• Surra is one of the most important haemoprotozoan diseases of different livestock species caused by Trypanosoma evansi. The disease is prevalent in all agro-climatic parts of India. In India, losses to livestock productivity were estimated to be INR 44740 million annually due to surra. The timely diagnosis and treatment of surra is very important and need of the hour to save losses to poor equine owners due to mortality and morbidity of equines caused by this disease. :
• The whole cell lysate antigen-based serological methods (CATT, LATEX, IFAT and ELISA) are also in use for the diagnosis of surra, which has the limitation of uniformity and use of laboratory animals for preparation of antigen. :
• Thus, NRCE developed a multi recombinant antigens-based ELISA for sensitive and specific detection of antibodies in serum of different livestock species against T. evansi infection.:
• This r-ELISA kit uses four recombinant proteins viz., calflagin protein (CLF), invariable surface glycoprotein (ISG-65), tandem repeat protein (TR) and variable surface glycoprotein (VSG). Ready to use recombinant antigens-coated, blocked and dried plates are available for testing of serum samples of different livestock species.:
• The kit has the capacity to test 42 samples in duplicate, with a shelf life of reagents up to 6 months when kept at 4oC. This kit is comparatively cheaper and can detect specific antibodies as early as on 10thday post infection. This kit can be used in different livestock species and companion animal’s viz., equine, cattle, buffalo, camel, pig and dog, etc. for diagnosis of T. evansi infection.