- Foals may have a "positive" EIA test result up to 9 months of age if they receive antibodies from the milk of their mother. That is the reason why they can have a "positive" EIA result and a few months later present a "negative" test result.
- There may be unspecific results in the EIA test due to cross reactions with the p26 antigen and antibodies for other diseases with similar antigens. An experienced veterinarian is able to read and differentiate this unspecific reaction from a positive one.
- There are positive AIE horses that apparently have a negative immunodiffusion agar gel test and other diagnose tests, as technicians and care takers say.
In those animals history, it is noticed that they went through long daily treatments with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
Although the immunodiffusion reaction may seem negative, it shows an inflexion in the lines, being a positive reaction. If it is difficult to see the inflexion, a negative control serum should be included in the test, which will help in visualizing the inflexion in the positive serum.
It is possible to use a magnifying glass to compare the lines of the unknown serum with the negative serum wide open lines, in order to see the inflexion.
These positive animals are carriers and have the viral sequence integrated to their cellular DNA. In endemic regions, they may keep that test result without showing clinical symptoms.
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Are there horses with Equine Infectious Anemia (EIA) that are no longer positives?
Upper tests:
Left: "Positive" (the line comes much nearer the well with the tested serum), "positive" (the inflexion is very near to the well with the tested serum) and "positive" (continuous line, equidistant to the wells).
Right: All tested sera are positives (joined and continuous lines, equidistant to the sera wells and the antigen well). They have an identity reaction, with the precipitation and formation of the inflexion by the antigen-antibody complex between the control serum (known positives) and tested serum (shown positives) antibodies, and the p26 antigen.
Bottom tests:
Left: Negative reactions (positive control lines bend away from the tested serum well, going wide open).
Right: Unspecific reactions examples, in which the animals are negative but there is an unspecific antigen reaction (there are no continuous lines between the tested serum wells and the positive control serum wells, where the lines crosses with each other, with the formation of cute angles). That occurs because of other antigen-antibody complexes formation, with antigens that are molecularly similar to the EIA p26 antigen.
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