A COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF DIFFERENT DIAGNOSTIC TESTS FOR BRUCELLOSIS IN BUFFALOES

In the present study, an attempt was made to compare the relative effi cacy of different tests used for diagnosis of brucellosis in buffaloes at the fi eld level. A total of 51 specimens, each of milk and serum from clinically suspected subjects in the fi eld were studied. The true prevalence of brucellosis was 13.72% with apparent prevalence of 33.34% and 17.64% by the milk ring test (MRT) and the Rose Bengal plate agglutination test (RBPT), respectively. The overall agreement between RBPT and serum tube agglutination test (STAT) was higher (96.07%) as compared to MRT and STAT (80.89%). Both MRT and RBPT showed 100% sensitivity. Specifi city of RBPT was higher (95.45%) than MRT (77.27%), when compared with STAT. The positive predictive value of MRT and RBPT was 0.412 and 0.778 respectively, with both the tests having negative predictive value of 1 when compared with STAT. The kappa value also revealed that RBPT and STAT had almost perfect agreement (kappa value = 0.852), whereas MRT and STAT (kappa value = 0.493) had substantial agreement.