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Detection of Porcine Cysticercosis in Meat Juice Samples from Infected Pigs

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Abstract

Background

Seroprevalence of porcine cysticercosis has been generally studied using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) detecting either antigens or antibodies in sera. However, serum is not always readily available. The objective of this study was to assess the diagnostic potential of meat juice in detecting porcine cysticercosis using a cysticercosis antibody ELISA.

Methods

Sera and meat juice samples from 13 different organs/tissues were collected from nine pigs naturally infected with cysticercosis and from six uninfected pigs reared under hygienic conditions. The sensitivity of the cysticercosis antibody ELISA in detecting porcine cysticercosis in meat juice samples was compared to that in serum samples from the same pigs.

Results

Using sera, cysticercosis was detected in all nine pigs harbouring cysticerci, but not in those reared under hygienic conditions. The sensitivity of the ELISA was highest in meat juice extracted from the diaphragm (100%), heart (89%) and neck muscle (78%) of the nine infected pigs, whereas it varied between 0 and 44% in the other samples.

Conclusion

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study for T. solium cysticercosis serology to use meat juice. Our results show that meat juice from pig carcass organs or muscles is a promising diagnostic specimen for the detection of porcine cysticercosis. More studies including a large sample size of pigs with varying degrees of cysticercosis infection are needed to further prove this concept.

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Acknowledgements

The authors’ acknowledge the funding provided by Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) for the bilateral research programme 2015–2020 titled “To Enhance Food Security, Safety and Value Addition in Tanzania’’ carried out in a joint research and training programme between the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), Tanzania and Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Sweden.

Funding

The work funded by SIDA under SIDA-Tanzania Bilateral Programme, Food Security Sub-programme (Contribution No. 5410004501).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biosciences, Sokoine University of Agriculture, P.O. Box 3038, Morogoro, Tanzania

    Justine Daudi Maganira

  2. Department of Zoology and Wildlife Conservation, University of Dar es Salaam, P.O. Box 35064, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

    Winifrida Kidima

  3. Department of Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Technology, University of Dar es Salaam, P.O. Box 35064, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

    Chacha John Mwita

  4. Department of Biomedical Sciences and Veterinary Public Health, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 7036, 750 07, Uppsala, Sweden

    Justine Daudi Maganira & Johan Höglund

Authors
  1. Justine Daudi Maganira
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  2. Winifrida Kidima
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  3. Chacha John Mwita
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  4. Johan Höglund
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Contributions

JDM: conceived field and laboratory design, data collection, analysis and interpretation, and manuscript writing. WK: conceived field, data interpretation and final manuscript revision. CJM: conceived field design. JH: conceived study design, leading the research team and final manuscript revision.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Justine Daudi Maganira.

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Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Statement

The study protocol was approved, in compliance with the Tanzania’s Animal welfare act of 2008, by the Research Ethics Committee of the Sokoine University of Agriculture (RPGS/R/ETHICS/32).

Informed Consent

Pig owners voluntarily agreed and gave their oral informed consent for data collection from their slaughtered pigs.

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Maganira, J.D., Kidima, W., Mwita, C.J. et al. Detection of Porcine Cysticercosis in Meat Juice Samples from Infected Pigs. Acta Parasit. 66, 851–856 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11686-020-00295-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11686-020-00295-y

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