Glanders is a contagious disease caused by the Gram-negative bacillus Burkholderia mallei. The number of equine
glanders outbreaks has increased steadily during the last decade. The disease must be reported to the Office International des Epizooties, Paris, France.
Glanders serodiagnosis is hampered by the considerable number of false positives and negatives of the internationally prescribed tests. The major problem leading to the low sensitivity and specificity of the
complement fixation test (CFT) and
enzyme-linked
immunosorbent assay (ELISA) has been linked to the test
antigens currently used, i.e., crude preparations of whole cells. False-positive results obtained from other diagnostic tests utilizing crude
antigens lead to financial losses to animal owners, and false-negative results can turn a risk into a possible threat. In this study, we report on the identification of diagnostic targets using bioinformatics tools for serodiagnosis of
glanders. The identified gene sequences were cloned and expressed as
recombinant proteins. The purified
recombinant proteins of B. mallei were used in an indirect ELISA format for serodiagnosis of
glanders. Two
recombinant proteins, 0375H and 0375TH, exhibited 100% sensitivity and specificity for
glanders diagnosis. The
proteins also did not cross-react with sera from patients with the closely related disease
melioidosis. The results of this investigation highlight the potential of recombinant 0375H and 0375TH
proteins in specific and sensitive diagnosis of
glanders.