Diagnosing subclinical facial eczema in cattle: does combining liver enzyme tests increase the accuracy of diagnosis?
Richard A LavenE L CuttanceDanchen Aaron YangPublished in: New Zealand veterinary journal (2021)
In this herd, combining the two tests resulted in a clinically relevant improvement in the accuracy of diagnosis of subclinical FE compared to using either test alone, which if used at the individual level will result in fewer cattle being assigned the wrong FE status. This will also apply at the herd level, with combined testing producing fewer false-positive herd test results than using one enzyme alone. This is particularly important for monitoring the efficacy of FE control measures when the expectation should be that the proportion of cattle with FE is very low.