Avian Ascaridia is a disease produced by nematodes of the Ascaridia Galli type, one of the most common intestine parasites among poultry. This nematode affects the intestine of both fowl (chicken, turkey, geese) and wild birds (partridge, grouse, duck, pheasant and common vulture), developing in the mucosa and lumen of the bird.
The prepatent period, the interval between ingestion of embryonated eggs and the moment when the parasite reaches its adult phase and starts hatching eggs that appear in the bird’s droppings, lasts approximately 50 days.
Females of this parasite produce a great quantity of eggs (around 5000 per day), which are excreted, without being embryonated. The larvae, inside the egg, becomes infective in 2-3 weeks, under optimum moisture conditions and high temperature.
The symptoms and signs of the disease are enteritis, diarrhoea and anaemia, symptoms that are related to the presence of worms in the digestive tract, but other symptoms like reduced blood sugar content and proteins in muscles, show the capacity of a parasite to modify the metabolism of its host, and the consequences are retarded growth and weight depression. The great concentration of fowl in farms makes it easier for the spreading of the parasite among the poultry, since they are infected by eating parasite eggs from the ground or from rubbish, and also eating earthworms, which act as a parasite deposit.
That is why nowadays Ascaridia is considered to be a very important economical problem. Studies from around the world on the epidemiology of Ascaridia Galli have been published recently pointing out this problem.
The detection methods that are being used are carried out analyzing droppings to indentify parasite eggs. This implies that when the infection is detected, the damages that the parasite creates are already taking place. In addition, the eggs excreted by the infected host create a risk for the other birds.
Therefore, there is a need to find an analysis method that allows detecting the presence of the parasite before the adult worms start producing eggs. By taking preventive measures in the affected farms, some of the damage caused by the parasite at an intestinal level is avoided.
After a laborious research, this group from the University of Salamanca has discovered that complex antigens of adult worms of Ascaris suum, can be used as antigens in enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) for the diagnose of Avian Ascaridia.
The offered technology provides a new method for the detection of Avian Ascaridia, which involves the usage of complex antigens of Ascaris suum as antigens in enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). These complex antigens from complex extractions of adult worms of Ascaris suum share many antigens with Ascaridia Galli, allowing the diagnose of the Avian Ascaridia before the parasite’s eggs start to be excreted by the infected birds. This technology permits to take preventive measures in the affected farms and avoid the damages caused by the parasite at an intestinal level.
The ELISA method allows the simultaneous analysis of many blood or serum samples, by which, both the diagnosis method and the kit of this invention result in an improvement in time and diagnose output, where the antigens used are obtained industrially in a standard way, improving the sensitivity and specificity of the diagnose of the infection produced by Ascaridia Galli.
The diagnosis method according to the invention is carried out “in vitro” by the ELISA technique on serum or complete blood from the animal suspected to suffer the disease.
The main contribution of the research group is the identification and quantification of antibodies against the parasite before it reaches its adult phase and starts to hatch eggs, which are the source of infection for other birds in the farm.
The diagnosis method according to the invention is carried out “in vitro” by the ELISA technique on serum or complete blood from the animal suspected to suffer the disease. This method allows the simultaneous analysis of many blood or serum samples, by which, both the diagnosis method and the kit of this invention result in an improvement in time and diagnose output, where the antigens used are obtained industrially in a standard way, improving the sensitivity and specificity of the diagnose of the infection produced by the parasites.