Contribution to the knowledge of the reliability of some serological tests in detecting spontaneous bovine cysticercosis.

A total of 110 bulls coming from a farm where cysticercosis repeatedly occurred were examined by means of indirect haemagglutination (IHA), microprecipitation in agar (MPA), and indirect immunofluorescence reaction (IFR). Cysticercosis (isolated cysts with live or dead cysticerci) was detected in 29 of them at post-mortem examination. Among the 29 infected animals, positive reactions were obtained in 37.9% with IHA, 51.7% with MPA and 10.3% with IFR. The remaining animals were negative. Of 82 animals giving negative reactions with IHA, 22% harboured cysticerci at post-mortem examination. Of 70 animals negative with MPA, 20% were infected with cysticerci and of 71 animals negative with IFR, 29.5% were positive at the slaughter. Consequently, none of the used serological methods is reliable for the detection of a very light spontaneous infection.