Validation of a polymerase chain reaction assay for monitoring the therapeutic efficacy of diminazene aceturate in trypanosome-infected sheep

The diagnostic performance of a polymerase chain reaction assay (PCR) for monitoring the effectiveness of aceturate diminazene treatment was compared with those of an antibody-detection ELISA test and the buffy-coat technique using sheep experimentally infected with either savannah-type or forest-type Trypanosoma congolense or T. vivax. Within the period of infection, the PCR using specific savannah-type T. congolense primers showed a significant higher diagnostic sensitivity (p<0.05) than the buffy-coat technique. Both techniques gave closed results for detecting forest-type T. congolense or T. vivax infections. Following trypanocidal treatment, the PCR showed that specific product disappeared definitively 1 or 2 days later in animals in which a decrease of the antibody level and a significant improvement of the red packed cell volume were observed. The occurrence of relapse infection was detected by the PCR in one animal infected by T. vivax on day 19 post-treatment and confirmed by the persistence and increasing antibody level whereas the buffy-coat technique detected parasites 42 days later. Then, the PCR signals remained positive on several occasions while parasitaemia was detected only two times.The application of PCR combined with the antibody detection appeared to provide a useful tool as compared to the buffy-coat technique for monitoring the effectiveness of trypanocidal treatment.