Acta Tropica 81 (2002) 159–165 Evaluation of whole fresh blood and dried blood on filter paper discs in serological tests for Trypanosoma eansi in experimentally infected water buffaloes W.G. Holland a,b , N.G. Thanh b , L.N. My b , E. Magnus c , D. Verloo c , P. Bu ¨ scher c , B. Goddeeris d , J. Vercruysse a, * a Laboratory of Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent Uniersity, Salisburylaan 133, B-9820 Merelbeke, Belgium b National Institute of Veterinary Research, Truong Chinh Street 86, Dong Da, Hanoi, Viet Nam c Department of Parasitology, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nationalestraat 155, B-2000 Antwerpen, Belgium d Faculty of Agriculture and Applied Biological Sciences, Department of Animal Production, K.U. Leuen, K. Mercierlaan 92, 3001 Heerlee, Belgium Received 20 March 2001; received in revised form 6 October 2001; accepted 23 October 2001 Abstract In this study we investigated if whole blood could substitute for serum in the direct card agglutination test (CATT/Trypansosoma eansi ) and the indirect card agglutination test (LATEX/T. eansi ) for the sero-diagnosis of T. eansi in buffaloes. Likewise blood spots on filter paper were compared with sera for use in the indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay/T. eansi (ELISA) and immunotrypanolysis test (T.L./T. eansi ). Samples were collected weekly from experimentally T. eansi infected- and non-infected water buffaloes. To estimate test agreement between serum and respectively whole fresh blood and dried blood spots on filterpaper of the tests,  values with 95% confidence intervals were calculated, 0.75 0.11 for the CATT/T. eansi ; 0.80 0.11 for the ELISA/T. eansi ; 0.84 0.11 for the LATEX/T. eansi and 0.93 0.11 for the T.L./T. eansi. In addition  values with 95% confidence intervals were computed to assess agreement between results obtained in the reference T.L./T. eansi test and those obtained in the other assays; 0.70 0.10 for the CATT-Serum; 0.75 0.11 for the LATEX-Blood; 0.77 0.11 for the LATEX-Serum; 0.81 0.10 for the CATT-Blood; 0.81 0.11 for the ELISA-Serum and 0.84 0.11 for the ELISA-Confetti. Based on the high  values as calculated, we conclude that serum can be replaced by fresh whole blood for the agglutination assays or blood on filter paper for the ELISA/T. eansi and T.L./T. eansi. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Trypanosoma eansi ; Water buffalo; Diagnosis-protozoa; Serology www.parasitology-online.com 1. Introduction The water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis ) is an im- portant livestock species in the northern half of * Corresponding author. Tel.: +32-9-264-7390; fax: +32- 9-264-7496. E-mail address: jozef.vercruysse@rug.ac.be (J. Vercruysse). 0001-706X/02/$ - see front matter © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII:S0001-706X(01)00211-X