Diagnosis of Non Tsetse Transmitted Trypanosomoses is complex since several diseases are caused by different Trypanosoma specie in a wide variety of different host species. Moreover, infection outcome can vary from acute fatal disease to chronic subclinical infection, even within the same vertebrate host species.

Especially in NTTAT endemic regions, diagnosis is often solely based on clinical signs that seldom are disease-specific thus leading to misdiagnosis an inappropriate treatment. Parasitological diagnosis by microscopic detection of the trypanosome in body fluids and biopsy material is poorly sensitive and the most sensitive techniques cannot be readily applied on all host species. A wide variety of serological techniques exist of which only the antibody detection tests perform relatively well. Those that are recommended by OIE (IFAT, ELISA, CFT, CATT) are all based on crude antigen preparations which render them prone to non-specific reactions resulting in false-positive test results. Efforts to replace crude antigens by recombinant ones are ongoing and have resulted in the first generation of immunochromatographic tests that deserve thorough evaluation. A plethora of molecular diagnostic tests exist for NTTAT. They are mainly based on detection of parasite-specific DNA sequence by means of PCR and qPCR. Their application is usually restricted to epidemiological or therapeutic research and no single one is available as ready-to-use, let alone commercial, kit.

As long as NTTAT remain seriously neglected veterinary diseases, market failure will prohibit commercial companies to invest in the development of diagnostics for NTTAT.

• A "Compendium of standard diagnostic tools for animal trypanosomoses of African origin" is available for downloading under "Technical support".

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