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Abstract
Brucellosis is a zoonosis of both public health and economic importance in many developing
countries including India. Early detection and segregation of the infected animals
are important in order to control the disease. Serodiagnostic tests for brucellosis
is mainly based on detection of antibodies developed against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)
component of cell. In this study we evaluated a protein antigen, 28 kDa outer membrane
protein (OMP28), of Brucella melitensis as an alternative to LPS. Recombinant OMP28
was produced in Escherichia coli system. The efficacy of purified OMP28 was studied
in an indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for diagnosis of brucellosis
in field sera collected from different regions of country. Using known negative and
known positive serum samples it was found that OMP28 is immunoreactive to Brucella
infected cattle, sheep, goat and dog sera. Three hundred and eighty two cattle sera
were screened by OMP28 antigen-based ELISA and the results were compared to rose Bengal
plate agglutination Test (RBPT). Recombinant OMP28 antigen-based ELISA has shown sensitivity
of 88.7%, specificity of 93.8% and accuracy of 92.9%. It was concluded that recombinant
B. melitensis OMP28 could be used as a protein antigen for diagnosis of brucellosis
in domestic animals.