Co-agglutination (Co-A): a rapid test for the diagnosis of experimental trichinellosis

Co-agglutination test (Co-A test) which has a wide application spectrum in bacterial diseases has been used for the detection of some parasitic infections. This work was to evaluate Co-A test as a new diagnostic tool in detection of T. spiralis antigens in both sera and urine of experimentally infected mice as compared with ELISA, for the diagnosis of trichinellosis. The results obtained by Co-A test were closely correlated with those of ELISA. The most important was that both tests were capable to detect T. spiralis antigen in urine of light and heavily infected mice only at the 30th days post infection. So, Co-A is an accurate, easy and rapid test that can be used on large scales for diagnosis of trichinellosis.