Diagnosis of Schistosoma infection in non-human animal hosts: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

• Main Authors: Song Liang (Author), Keerati Ponpetch (Author), Yi-Biao Zhou (Author), Jiagang Guo (Author), Berhanu Erko (Author), J Russell Stothard (Author), M Hassan Murad (Author), Xiao-Nong Zhou (Author), Fadjar Satrija (Author), Joanne P Webster (Author), Justin V Remais (Author), Jürg Utzinger (Author), Amadou Garba (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS), 2022-05-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 1935-2727; 1935-2735; 10.1371/journal.pntd.0010389
• Keywords: Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270
• Source: PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 16, Iss 5, p e0010389 (2022)

<h4>Background</h4>Reliable and field-applicable diagnosis of schistosome infections in non-human animals is important for surveillance, control, and verification of interruption of human schistosomiasis transmission. This study aimed to summarize uses of available diagnostic techniques through a systematic review and meta-analysis.<h4>Methodology and principal findings</h4>We systematically searched the literature and reports comparing two or more diagnostic tests in non-human animals for schistosome infection. Out of 4,909 articles and reports screened, 19 met our inclusion criteria, four of which were considered in the meta-analysis. A total of 14 techniques (parasitologic, immunologic, and molecular) and nine types of non-human animals were involved in the studies. Notably, four studies compared parasitologic tests (miracidium hatching test (MHT), Kato-Katz (KK), the Danish Bilharziasis Laboratory technique (DBL), and formalin-ethyl acetate sedimentation-digestion (FEA-SD)) with quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), and sensitivity estimates (using qPCR as the reference) were extracted and included in the meta-analyses, showing significant heterogeneity across studies and animal hosts. The pooled estimate of sensitivity was 0.21 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.03-0.48) with FEA-SD showing highest sensitivity (0.89, 95% CI: 0.65-1.00).<h4>Conclusions/significance</h4>Our findings suggest that the parasitologic technique FEA-SD and the molecular technique qPCR are the most promising techniques for schistosome diagnosis in non-human animal hosts. Future studies are needed for validation and standardization of the techniques for real-world field applications.