Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Veterinary Parasitology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/vetpar Research paper Comparison of serological and molecular tests for detection of Trypanosoma evansi in domestic animals from Ghardaïa district, South Algeria Karima Benfodil a,b, *, Philippe Büscher c , Amine Abdelli b , Nick Van Reet c , Abdellah Mohamed-herif a , Samir Ansel a , Said Fettata d , Sara Dehou c , Nicolas Bebronne c , Manon Geerts c , Fatima Balharbi c , Khatima Ait-Oudhia a a High National Veterinary School of Algiers, Issad Street, Oued Smar, Bab Ezzouar, Algeria b Akli Mohand Oulhadj University, Department of Agriculture Science, Drissi Yahia Street, Bouira, Algeria c Institute of Tropical Medicine, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Nationalestraat 155, 2000 Antwerp, Belgium d Veterinary Practice, Thnia Street, Ghardaïa, Algeria ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Trypanosoma evansi PCR qPCR ELISA CATT Immune trypanolysis Diagnostic accuracy ABSTRACT Trypanosoma evansi (T. evansi) is a hemoflagellate parasite that affects a broad range of mammalian hosts and that causes a disease called surra. Diagnosis of surra based on clinical symptoms alone is inaccurate. Therefore, a variety of serological and molecular diagnostic tests are used to assist in the detection of T. evansi infections. The aim of this study was to compare the diagnostic performance of four serological tests (CATT/T.evansi, immune trypanolysis, ELISA with purified variant surface glycoprotein RoTat 1.2 and with whole cell lysate) and two molecular PCR tests targeting sequences within the ribosomal genes locus (ITS1 TD PCR and 18S qPCR). Tests were carried out on blood samples from 161 dromedary camels, 93 horses, 129 goats, 168 sheep, 127 bovines and 76 dogs. Latent class analysis was carried out to calculate the sensitivity and specificity of each diagnostic test. Cohen’s Kappa test was used to assess the concordance between the different diagnostic tests. Overall positivity rates observed with the serological tests were as follows: 3.1 % with CATT/T.evansi, 4.9 % with ELISA/RoTat 1.2, 3.4 % with ELISA/whole lysate and 2.0 % with immune trypanolysis (TL). Among the 754 samples tested with the molecular tests, 1.7 % were positive with 18S qPCR and 1.3 % with ITS1 TD PCR. Cohen’s Kappa test showed agreement ranging from fair to substantial (k = 0.2-0.8) between serological diag- nostic tests. However, it showed a perfect agreement (k = 0.868) between molecular diagnostic tests. Latent class analysis showed that all serological tests were 100 % sensitive, in contrast to the molecular tests with 47 % sensitivity. All tests, though, were highly specific(≥ 97 %). Given the persistence of circulating antibodies after cure, detectable by serological tests, it is recommend combining a serological and a molecular diagnostic test for accurate diagnosis of infection with T. evansi in domestic animals. 1. Introduction Surra is a trypanosomosis due to Trypanosoma (T.) evansi, the first ever pathogenic trypanosome described in horses and dromedaries from India (Hoare, 1972). Trypanosoma evansi is a flagellated protozoan parasite transmitted mechanically by different fly species like Tabanus sp. and Stomoxys sp. (Luckins, 1988; Brun et al., 1998) and in South America also by vampire bats (Hoare, 1972). Trypanosoma evansi affects a huge range of domestic and wild mammals around the world and especially camels and horses in Africa (Dia et al., 1997; Njiru et al., 2004; Gari et al., 2010; Birhanu et al., 2015; Fikru et al., 2015); camels, horses, water buffalo and cattle in Asia (Abo-Shehada et al., 1999; Verloo et al., 2000; Hasan et al., 2006; Elshafie et al., 2013; Tehseen et al., 2015; Alanazi et al., 2018; Yadav et al., 2019) and horses, cattle and dogs in South America (Herrera et al., 2004; Jaimes-Dueñez et al., 2017; Ramírez-Iglesias et al., 2017). Sporadically, the parasite has caused outbreaks in Europe by importation of infected animals from endemic countries as was recently the case in Spain and France (Gutierrez et al., 2006; Desquesnes et al., 2009; Tamarit et al., 2010). Clinical signs differ from one host species to another and vary from unapparent to lethal. In camels, surra causes intermittent fever, weak- ness, abortion and oedema. It is sometimes fatal within a few months https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vetpar.2020.109089 Received 4 November 2019; Received in revised form 13 March 2020; Accepted 16 March 2020 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: karimaensv@gmail.com (K. Benfodil). Veterinary Parasitology 280 (2020) 109089 0304-4017/ © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. T