Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40473835›Full record

ArticleScientific reports2025

Comparative performance and age dependence of tuberculin and defined antigen bovine tuberculosis skin tests assessed with Bayesian latent class analysis.

Matios Lakew, Andrew J K Conlan, Biniam Tadesse, Sreenidhi Srinivasan, Bekele Yalew, Teferi Benti, Abebe Olani, Getachew Kinfe, Tigist Ashagrie, Ashebir Abebe and 11 more

Abstract readComparative Study
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
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Article in Scientific reports, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

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2citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

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2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

21 authors.

Matios Lakew *Aklilu Lemma Institute of Pathobiology, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 1176, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. matioslakew@gmail.com.
Andrew J K Conlan *Disease Dynamics Unit, Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK. ajkc2@cam.ac.uk.
Biniam TadesseAnimal Health Institute, P.O. Box 04, Sebeta, Ethiopia.
Sreenidhi SrinivasanGlobal Health Initiative, Henry Ford Health, Detroit, MI, 48202, USA.
Bekele YalewAnimal Health Institute, P.O. Box 04, Sebeta, Ethiopia.
Teferi BentiAnimal Health Institute, P.O. Box 04, Sebeta, Ethiopia.
Abebe OlaniAnimal Health Institute, P.O. Box 04, Sebeta, Ethiopia.
Getachew KinfeAnimal Health Institute, P.O. Box 04, Sebeta, Ethiopia.
Tigist AshagrieAnimal Health Institute, P.O. Box 04, Sebeta, Ethiopia.
Ashebir AbebeAnimal Health Institute, P.O. Box 04, Sebeta, Ethiopia.
Abebe FromsaAklilu Lemma Institute of Pathobiology, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 1176, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Musse Girma AbdelaAklilu Lemma Institute of Pathobiology, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 1176, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Berecha BayissaNational Veterinary Institute, Bishoftu, Ethiopia.
Solomon GebreAnimal Health Institute, P.O. Box 04, Sebeta, Ethiopia.
Adane MihretArmauer Hansen Research Institute, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Getnet Abie MekonnenAnimal Health Institute, P.O. Box 04, Sebeta, Ethiopia.
Gobena AmeniAklilu Lemma Institute of Pathobiology, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 1176, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Hagos AshenafiAklilu Lemma Institute of Pathobiology, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 1176, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
James L N WoodDisease Dynamics Unit, Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
Balako GumiAklilu Lemma Institute of Pathobiology, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 1176, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Vivek KapurDepartment of Animal Science, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA. vxk1@psu.edu.

Funding

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation OPP1176950
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Tuberculin skin tests (TST), the primary diagnostic tool for bovine tuberculosis (bTB), cross-react with BCG vaccine. Recently developed defined antigen skin tests (DSTs) aim to differentiate infected amongst vaccinated animals. We evaluated the field performance of different interpretations of the TST and DSTs relative to IGRA and IDEXX M. bovis antibody tests. This panel of tests was assessed in 446 unvaccinated cattle across 22 Ethiopian dairy herds using Bayesian latent class models. We extended the standard Walter-Hui model to include age-related effects to explore evidence of the presence of diagnostic anergy. The latent class models estimate sensitivity and specificity of the DSTs to be between 84-88% and 79-85% respectively. The DSTs perform intermediately between the comparative intradermal test (CIT, sensitivity 77%, specificity 100%) and single intradermal test (SIT, sensitivity 99%, specificity 76%). We observed significant age-related declines in test sensitivity, most notably for CIT (declining from 75 to 52% over 9 years) and DST10 (83% to 68%), while other tests showed more stable sensitivity across age groups. This variable pattern across tests suggests mechanisms beyond simple age-related anergy. Together, these findings demonstrate that DSTs' superior sensitivity to CIT and comparable or better specificity than SIT, combined with their ability to distinguish vaccinated animals, creates a viable pathway for implementing BCG vaccination programs. Given the absence of any gold standard definition of infection with bTB, latent class analyses are essential to assess the relative performance of different diagnostic tests. While our results provide encouraging news for the sensitivity of the new DST tests, the high prevalence of bTB within our study population makes our design underpowered to assess the specificity of the DSTs. Future research, including assessment of the specificity of DSTs in disease-free populations and optimization of test formulation and validation through large-scale field trials is essential to fully establish the case for use in vaccination and surveillance programs.

Indexed as

Antigens, BacterialTuberculin TestTuberculosis, BovineAge FactorsAnimalsBayes TheoremBCG VaccineCattleEthiopiaFemaleLatent Class AnalysisMycobacterium bovisSensitivity and SpecificityAntigens, BacterialBCG VaccineAge-dependent diagnosticsBayesian latent class analysisBCG vaccinationBovine tuberculosisDefined antigen skin testDisease controlDIVATuberculin

Identifiers

PMID40473835
PMCPMC12141502

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.