Immunodiagnosis Assay and Cytokine Response in Naturally Fasciola-Infected Cattle in the Western Highland of Cameroon

Heinendez, Atanga Merrius; Ngum, Ntonifor Helen; Fubi, Bih Belta Lilian; Mahamat, Oumar

doi:10.21608/ejvs.2024.289060.2085

Immunodiagnosis Assay and Cytokine Response in Naturally Fasciola-Infected Cattle in the Western Highland of Cameroon

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Department of Microbiolgy and Parasitology, Faculty of Science, The University of Bamenda, Bamenda, Cameroon

² Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, The University of Bamenda, Bamenda, Cameroon

10.21608/ejvs.2024.289060.2085

Abstract

Fascioliasis
caused by Fasciola is commonly reported in cattle. Various studies have evaluated the use of somatic antigen for immunodiagnosis of fascioliasis, but the results on the performance remain not clear. So, the present study was conducted to evaluate the performance of IgG-Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) using total somatic antigens of Fasciola to diagnose fascioliasis and the effect of regulatory cytokines in cattle. A total of 428 serum samples from Fasciola spp infected cattle following the postmortem examination (coprology and liver incision) were tested for the performance of IgG-ELISA. For cytokines analysis, 150 serum samples (87 seropositive and 63 seronegative) were examined. Out of 428 samples, only 87 were diagnosed positive using the IgG-ELISA, given a performance of 20.32%. Season, sex and age did not show significant influence on the seropositivity. However a high IgG level was observed in rainy season than dry season (p < 0.0009). Seronegative Fasciola infected cattle had highly elevated serum transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) (p<0.0001), low serum Interleukin (IL)-10 (IL-10) (p < 0.0001), but no difference in serum interleukin (IL)-4 (p = 0.62) level. Furthermore, there was significant (p<0.0001) high level ratio of TGF-β/IL-4 in seronegative. The ratio TGF-β/IL-4 was negatively correlated with IgG level in seropositive Fasciola spp. infected cattle. It was concluded that overall somatic antigen did not show a convincing diagnosis of fascioliasis and this low performance may be associated with changes in TGF-β and IL-10 levels.

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