Serodiagnosis of tuberculosis in Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) in Southern India: a latent class analysis
Authors: Raman Sukumar
Jacob Varghese Cheeran
Kithiganahalli Narayanaswamy Balaji
Shalu Verma-Kumar
David Abraham
Nandini Dendukuri
Journal: PLoS ONE (2012)
Discipline: Multidisciplinary
Keywords: Mycobacterium tuberculosis; Asian elephants; serological tests; sensitivity; specificity
Affiliations: Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.

Abstract:  Background: Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a causative agent of chronic tuberculosis disease, is widespread among some animal species too. There is paucity of information on the distribution, prevalence and true disease status of tuberculosis in Asian elephants (Elephas maximus). The aim of this study was to estimate the sensitivity and specificity of serological tests to diagnose M. tuberculosis infection in captive elephants in southern India while simultaneously estimating sero-prevalence. Methodology/principal findings: Health assessment of 600 elephants was carried out and their sera screened with a commercially available rapid serum test. Trunk wash culture of select rapid serum test positive animals yielded no animal positive for M. tuberculosis isolation. Under Indian field conditions where the true disease status is unknown, we used a latent class model to estimate the diagnostic characteristics of an existing (rapid serum test) and new (four in-house ELISA) tests. One hundred and seventy nine sera were randomly selected for screening in the five tests. Diagnostic sensitivities of the four ELISAs were 91.3-97.6% (95% Credible Interval (CI): 74.8-99.9) and diagnostic specificity were 89.6-98.5% (95% CI: 79.4-99.9) based on the model we assumed. We estimate that 53.6% (95% CI: 44.6-62.8) of the samples tested were free from infection with M. tuberculosis and 15.9% (97.5% CI: 9.8 - to 24.0) tested positive on all five tests. Conclusions/significance: Our results provide evidence for high prevalence of asymptomatic M. tuberculosis infection in Asian elephants in a captive Indian setting. Further validation of these tests would be important in formulating area-specific effective surveillance and control measures. 

Retracted: No

PubPeer comments:
 This paper appears to belong to a set of (as of today) seven papers that all show very similar, and sometimes overlapping, panels with Alizarin Red-stained cells. These papers were published by different authors at different hospitals, suggesting the photos all might have originated from the same source. The papers are: * AG Gao et al., , The First Affiliated Hospital Of Soochow University, Suzhou, DOI: 10.26355 eurrev_201807_15527- https: pubpeer.com publications 65A5976CDD42166D927AF2D3BA0B56 * B Luo et al., The Affiliated Hospital (Traditional Chinese Medicine) of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, DOI: 10.26355 eurrev_201908_18717 - https: pubpeer.com publications 20DFC925FC185C52D8BA99B153F510 * Changgong Lan et al., The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Guangzhou, DOI: 10.3892 etm.2019.8246 - https: pubpeer.com publications 1D79EA9F787AF36661079482544D12 * FB Weng et al., The Ninth Peopleu2019s Hospital of Suzhou, Suzhou, DOI: 10.26355 eurrev_201912_19759 - https: pubpeer.com publications D63F002727B3A990A4571F7D4B6F56 * GC Gao et al., The Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Nanchang, DOI: 10.26355 eurrev_202001_20029 - https: pubpeer.com publications F04C25EBF6963C260938DF3B6BB999 * JY Li et al., Dongzhimen Hospital, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, DOI: 10.26355 eurrev_201908_18519 - https: pubpeer.com publications 6171C86828BF72676BB2B178610093 * YC Fu et al., Health Management Center, Weifang Peopleu2019s Hospital, Weifang, DOI: 10.26355 eurrev_201908_18632 - https: pubpeer.com publications FF66C46D23036BC26668481C279E4B Here is a collage of the images from these papers. Boxes of the same color highlight panels or parts of panels that look similar. ![file] , 
 Retracted [March 2021] . ----------------------------- The article u201cMOTS-c accelerates bone fracture healing by stimulating osteogenesis of bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells via positively regulating FOXF1 to activate the TGF-u03b2 pathway, by F.-B. Weng, L.-F. Zhu, J.-X. Zhou, Y. Shan, Z.-G. Tian, L.-W. Yang, published in Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci 2019; 23 (24): 10623-10630u2013DOI: 10.26355 eurrev_201912_19759u2013PMID: 31858528u201d has been withdrawn from the authors due to inaccuracies during the process of organizing the images. The Publisher apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause. ,