A comprehensive evaluation of an ELISA for the diagnosis of the two most common ascarids in chickens using plasma or egg yolks

Table 2 Diagnostic ability of the ELISA using plasma or egg yolk samples in comparison to faecal egg counts (FEC) obtained from 24 h faeces in chickens with mono-Ascaridia galli or -Heterakis gallinarum infections

Worm species	Parameter	ELISA - Plasma	ELISA - Egg yolk	FEC
A. galli	AUC ± SE	0.99 ± 0.014^a	0.96 ± 0.034	0.92 ± 0.033^a
	Cut-off	52.9 mU/ml	32.0 mU/ml	25 EPG
	Sensitivity, % (95% CI)	94 (79–99)	93 (78–99)	84 (66–95)
	Specificity, % (95% CI)	100 (66–100)	100 (66–100)	100 (66–100)
H. gallinarum	AUC ± SE	0.91 ± 0.037^b	0.96 ± 0.019^b	0.95 ± 0.023
	Cut-off	47.2 mU/ml	43.8 mU/ml	25 EPG
	Sensitivity, % (95% CI)	95 (83–99)	90 (77–97)	90 (77–97)
	Specificity, % (95% CI)	72 (51–88)	92 (74–99)	100 (86–100)

^aArea under the ROC curves (AUC) sharing the superscript tend to differ between corresponding tests in A. galli infection (Chi-square test: χ ² = 3.457, df = 1, P = 0.0630)
^bAUC sharing the superscript tend to differ between corresponding tests in H. gallinarum infection (Chi-square test: χ ² = 2.921, df = 1, P = 0.0874)

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