Indirect fluorescent antibody test in diagnosis of trichinellosis.

Chroust K., Mittermayer T.: Indirect Fluorescent Antibody Test in Diagnosis of Trichinellosis in Man. Acta vet. Brno, 52, 1983: 177 -181. To demonstrate the presence of antibodies during the six trichinellosis epidemics in humans in the east Slovakia in 1971-1980 the indirect fluorescent antibody test (IFA), the microprecipitation reaction (MP) and the complement fixation reaction (CF) were employed. The IFA test proved to be very sensitive and out of all serologic tests used it yielded standardly the most reliable results. From the total number of 293 serums of trichinous meat consumers that IFA test was used in 274 serums and yielded positive results in 85.3 %. The MP reaction was employed in 144 and CF reaction in 109 cases giving 48.6 and 45.2 % of positive results, resp. Using the IFA test, the antibodies were found even in cases when very small amount of trichinous meat had been consumed and the apparent manifestation of the disease did not, appear. The reaction was found to be applicable even for the detection of latent cases of trichinellosis in humans. T. spiralis, antibodies in humans, indirect fluorescent test, microprecipitation reaction, complement fixation reaction. From the epidemiological and epizootiological aspects trichinellosis is still the helminthiasis of primary significance in worldwide dimensions. As examinations from last years have shown, the number of positive cases in humans is still high. On post-mortem examination of diaphragm in some states of the USA, in Canada and Mexico the trichinellosis was detected in 5-23 %, the percentage of cases found in some European countries being also high, e. g. 4-15 % in the USSR, 4-13 % in Poland, 0.4-5.2 % in Great Britain, 0.8-2.4 % in Hungary (Lupascu 1970). Chroust (1961) using the literature data has found that in Bohemia and Moravia the trichinellosis epidemic up to the year 1951 has occurred 35 times. Mittermayer (1973) reported that in the east Slovakia six trichinellosis epidemics in humans were detected in the period 1933 to 1970. On the basis of the post-mortem trichinoscopic examination of diaphragm of 182 patients that died from various diseases this author found T. spiralis in 1966 in 12 cases, i. e. in 6.58 %. Further epidemics oftrichinellosis in humans in the east Slovakia were reported by Mittermayer et al. (1976, 1978, 1981). As was shown by Hovorka (1957), Mituch (1961), Chroust (1961) and Dykova (1965) free living carnivores, mostly foxes, lynxes, wolves and wild cats, have practical epizootiological significance for the trichinellosis spreading in our conditions. The main epizootiological importance, as far as the invasion of humans in our conditions is concerned, is ascribed to wild boars whose meat is consumed usually at the place of shooting and is often not subject to a compulsory delivery and thus escapes even a parasitological examination. At present, a considerable attention has been devoted to the diagnosis of trichinellosis. It turns out that the more precise the diagnostic methods are, the more often we detect.ed the co-called latent cases of the disease that previously escaped our attention. The fluorescent method in the study of antigenous properties of larvae and grown T. spiralis parasites was firstly used by Jackson and Lewert (1957) and Jackson (1959). Indirect fluorescent