Bovine tuberculosis (bTB), caused by Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis)
infection in cattle, is an economically devastating
chronic disease for livestock worldwide. Efficient disease control measures rely on early and accurate diagnosis using the
tuberculin skin test (TST) and
interferon-gamma release assays (IGRAs), followed by culling of positive animals. Compromised performance of TST and IGRA, due to BCG vaccination or
co-infections with non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), urges improved diagnostics. Lateral flow assays (LFAs) utilizing luminescent upconverting reporter particles (UCP) for quantitative measurement of host
biomarkers present an accurate but less equipment- and labor-demanding diagnostic test platform. UCP-LFAs have proven applications for human
infectious diseases. Here, we report the development of UCP-LFAs for the detection of six bovine
proteins (IFN-γ, IL-2, IL-6, CCL4, CXCL9, and CXCL10), which have been described by ELISA as potential
biomarkers to discriminate M. bovis infected from naïve and BCG-vaccinated cattle. We show that, in line with the ELISA data, the combined PPDb-induced levels of IFN-γ,
IL-2,
IL-6, CCL4, and CXCL9 determined by UCP-LFAs can discriminate M. bovis challenged animals from naïve (AUC range: 0.87-1.00) and BCG-vaccinated animals (AUC range: 0.97-1.00) in this cohort. These initial findings can be used to develop a robust and user-friendly multi-
biomarker test (MBT) for bTB diagnosis.