Publication Type
Journal Article
Publication Date (Issue Year)
2020
Journal Name
Journal of Parasitology Research
Abstract
Porcine cysticercosis is a neglected and underestimated disease caused by metacestode stage of the tapeworm, Taenia solium(T. solium). Pigs are the intermediate hosts of T. solium while human are the only known definitive host. The disease has an economicconsequence because the affected farmers lose 50−100 percent of the value of pigs if they are infected. Lack of affordable, easy touse, sensitive, and specific molecular diagnostic tools for detection of infections at the farm level hinders the control of porcinecysticercosis in endemic areas. A number of DNA based diagnostic assays for the detection of T. solium infections in pigs havebeen developed and evaluated but none is applicable at low-resource areas where this disease is an endemic. This review focusesmainly on DNA based diagnostic methods, their sensitivity, specificity, and utilization at low-resource areas.We summarized datafrom 65 studies on the current DNA-detection based diagnostic techniques for T. solium cysticercosis in porcine, published inEnglish between the years 2000–2018, identified through PubMed search engine. Of the different polymerase chain reaction (PCR)assays developed for identification of T. solium, the most sensitive (97−100%) and specific (100%) one is nested PCR. One studyutilized loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) as a diagnostic tool for the detection of T. solium infections though itsfield use was never determined. Recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) has been evaluated as a diagnostic tool for a varietyof diseases, but has never been exploited for the diagnosis of cysticercosis/taeniasis. In conclusion, several molecular methods havebeen developed and evaluated in lab settings. However, there is need to validate these methods as a diagnostic tool to diagnoseporcine cysticercosis in low-resource areas
Keywords
Taenia solium Cysticercosis, Porcine
Rsif Scholar Name
Maxwell Wambua Waema,Gerald Misinzo,John M. Kagira,Eric L. Agola,Helena A. Ngowi
Thematic Area
Food security and Agribusiness
Africa Host University (AHU)
Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), Tanzania
Funding Statement
We wish to acknowledge partnership for skills in appliedsciences, engineering and technology-Reginal Scholarshipand Innovation Fund (RSIF) for supporting this study.
Recommended Citation
Waema, M. W. (2020). DNA-Detection Based Diagnostics for Taenia solium Cysticercosis in Porcine. Journal of Parasitology Research, 2020 https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/5706981