comparison of immunochromatographic rapid test with molecular method in diagnosis of canine parvovirus

background: canine parvovirus (cpv) infection is one ofthe most common causes of infectious gastroenteritis in dogs andis a highly contagious, often fatal disease. the original virus(cpv type 2) has had some mutations since its emergence andnew variants (cpv-2a, 2b and 2c) have been reported from manycountries all around the world. early diagnosis and treatment canprofoundly affect the disease outcome. objectives:to comparethe ability of immunochromatographic (ic) test to detect cpvinfection in 50 pcr positive samples (n=50) with regard to virusstrains. methods: 50 rectal swabs (n=50) were prepared fromsuspicious dogs and subjected to pcr and ic test respectively.results: the sensitivity of ic test in pcr positive samples was84% (42 out of 50 samples) and the positive predictive value ofthe test was 100%. using pcr, cpv strains in our study were 2a(18/50, 36%) and 2b (32/50, 64%) with the predominance of 2bstrain. ic test was also able to diagnose 15/18 (83.3%) of cpv-2a and 27/32 (84.3%) cpv-2b strain positive samples, whichmeans ic test can detect cpv infections caused by both virusstrains (2a and 2b), without significant difference. conclusions:this study shows that ic test results are relatively reliable fordiagnosing cpvinfection in daily veterinary practice and the testis able to diagnose both cpv-2a and cpv-2b which are prevalentstrains in iran.