In the present study, recombinant granule antigen proteins GRA1, GRA7 and Toxoplasma soluble antigens (TSA) were evaluated as potential diagnostic markers for T. gondii infection in chickens by an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), showing a seroprevalence of 16.4% by GRA1-ELISA, and 15.5% by both GRA7- and TSA-ELISA in chickens. No significant difference was observed in the inconsistent results (P > 0.05), and a substantial agreement was found in the consistent results of the 3 tests (92.7-97.3%). Compared with the reference test Western blot, GRA7-ELISA showed the highest co-positivity and co-negativity rates. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis revealed a largest area under curve (AUC) of 0.99 (95% CI, 98-1.0), and a highest relative sensitivity (100%) and specificity (97.9%) for a cut-off value of 0.34 in GRA7-ELISA. These results of the present study showed that GRA7 is a potential diagnostic marker for the detection of T. gondii infection in chickens.
Keywords: Chickens; Diagnostic marker; ELISA; GRA1; GRA7; Toxoplasma gondii.
Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.