comparison of the validity of cie and pcr diagnostic methods in determining hydatidosis in sheep

sheep is one of the important hosts for hydatidosis in iran as a hyperendemic region worldwide. in the present study, the efficacy of counter immuno-electerophoresis (cie) and pcr tests to detect sheep hydatid cyst infection was carried out. for this, soluble antigen was provided using hydatid cyst fluids (hcfs). blood sera were taken from a total number of 100 slaughtered sheep. cie analysis was undertaken using negative and positive controls. dna was extracted from protoscolices and a 1213bp fragment length of co1 gene amplified. necropsy findings indicated that lung and liver of slaughtered sheep (33%) was infected with hydatid cyst. while it was 29% in cie and 28% in pcr test. according to the necropsy findings as a gold standard test, sensitivity and specificity of cie was 79.31% and 92.2%, respectively. sensitivity and specifity of pcr test were determined 85.19% and 94.8%, as well. data analysis showed that there is no significant difference between these two techniques (p<0.05). based on these results, cie technique can be considered as a useful method to screen sheep hydatid cyst infection.