Creation of a reliable and easy to use serologic test would greatly improve ante mortem
diagnosis of Mycobacterium avium subsp. avium and aid in the control of avian
mycobacteriosis, particularly in captive birds. In order to determine whether
serodiagnostics could be of value in testing ring-neck doves (Streptopelia risoria) for M.
a. avium infection, Western blot analysis was used to assess the humoral response of
ring-neck doves exposed to M. a. avium, and to evaluate whether an association could be
made between humoral response and necropsy findings, histopathology, culture, and
PCR testing. Western blot results were examined for reactivity patterns associating the
humoral response with infection status, severity and type of lesions (diffuse vs
multifocal granulomatous inflammation) and phenotype (white vs non-white). A
sensitivity of 88.24% and a specificity of 100% were achieved utilizing Western blot
analysis to detect M. a. avium infection in ring-neck doves, offering a negative
predictive value of 93% and a positive predictive value of 100%. While Western blot
analysis results did not reflect lesion severity, lesion type did partially correspond with
the humoral response. The findings of the present study indicate that serologic testing can be used as a valuable ante mortem screening tool for identifying ring-neck doves
infected with M. a. avium.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2610 |
| Date | 15 May 2009 |
| Creators | Gray, Patricia Lara-Lynn |
| Contributors | Tizard, Ian |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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