Dried tube specimen preparation and stability validation for brucellosis
serological external quality assessment and quality control materials in
resource-limited settings
Abstract
Brucellosis remains one of the major zoonotic diseases worldwide and
requires a One Health approach for early detection and control. One of
the crucial components for brucellosis control and spread is timely and
reliable laboratory diagnosis. External quality assessment is a key
component of laboratory quality assurance to evaluate performance and
identify possible insufficiencies in laboratory practices.
Implementation of brucellosis external quality assessment in
resource-limited countries are rare and challenging due to logistical
and financial difficulties. The aim of this study was to evaluate the
stability of dried tube specimens for external quality assessment of
brucellosis serological testing that could be used in resource-limited
countries to avoid logistical and financial constraints associated with
use of sera. Prepared dried tube specimen panels consisted of 5 samples,
one negative and 4 positive samples ranging from weak positive to strong
positive. It was shown that brucellosis dried tube specimens were stable
at room temperature for 105 days (15 weeks). Consistent results were
observed for all samples by rose bengal test during weekly stability
testing and also at the end of the stability period by complement
fixation test, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, and fluorescence
polarization assay. In conclusion, brucellosis dried tube specimen
maintains integrity of serum samples for serological testing of brucella
infection and can be a powerful tool for external quality assessment
providers, as it decreases huge shipping costs and avoids challenges in
maintaining cold chain shipments between the provider and the recipient
laboratories. Moreover, it has great prospects for enabling expansion of
external quality assessment programs to include lower tier labs in
resource-limited countries to monitor and improve the quality and
accuracy of brucellosis testing, as well as it could be used for
transportation of clinical samples from remote areas without cold chain
logistics.