Open AccessPerformance of 4 Point‐of‐Care Screening Tests for Feline Leukemia Virus and Feline Immunodeficiency Virus
Author(s) -
Levy J.K.,
Crawford P. Cynda,
Tucker S.J.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of veterinary internal medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.356
H-Index - 103
eISSN - 1939-1676
pISSN - 0891-6640
DOI - 10.1111/jvim.14648
Subject(s) - feline immunodeficiency virus , medicine , gold standard (test) , cats , point of care testing , feline leukemia virus , seroprevalence , point of care , false positive paradox , antibody , virology , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , immunology , pathology , serology , viral disease , lentivirus , machine learning , computer science
Background More than 3 million cats in the United States are infected with Fe LV or FIV . The cornerstone of control is identification and segregation of infected cats. Hypothesis/Objectives To compare test performance with well‐characterized clinical samples of currently available Fe LV antigen/ FIV antibody combination test kits. Animals Surplus serum and plasma from diagnostic samples submitted by animal shelters, diagnostic laboratories, veterinary clinics, and cat research colonies. None of the cats had been vaccinated against FIV . The final sample set included 146 Fe LV +, 154 Fe LV −, 94 FIV +, and 97 FIV − samples. Methods Prospective, blind comparison to a gold standard: Samples were evaluated in 4 different point‐of‐care tests by ELISA antigen plate tests (Fe LV ) and virus isolation ( FIV ) as the reference standards. All test results were visually read by 2 blinded observers. Results Sensitivity and specificity, respectively, for Fe LV were SNAP ® (100%/100%), WITNESS ® (89.0%/95.5%), Anigen ® (91.8%/95.5%), and VetScan ® (85.6%/85.7%). Sensitivity and specificity for FIV were SNAP ® (97.9%/99.0%), WITNESS ® (94.7%/100%), Anigen ® (96.8%/99.0%), and VetScan ® (91.5%/99.0%). Conclusions and Clinical Importance The SNAP ® test had the best performance for Fe LV , but there were no significant differences for FIV . In typical cat populations with seroprevalence of 1–5%, a majority of positive results reported by most point‐of‐care test devices would be false‐positives. This could result in unnecessary segregation or even euthanasia.