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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Vet. Sci.

Sec. Veterinary Clinical, Anatomical, and Comparative Pathology

Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1643473

This article is part of the Research TopicInnovations in Veterinary Diagnostics for Enhancing Animal Health and WelfareView all 8 articles

Antibody Reactivity to Afmp1p Antigen in Penguins with Probable and Confirmed Aspergillosis

Provisionally accepted
Adriana CallicoAdriana Callico1Mary Irene ThurberMary Irene Thurber2Ellen BronsonEllen Bronson3Julie BarnesJulie Barnes4Anne Burgdorf- MoisukAnne Burgdorf- Moisuk5Nicholas A BuscagliaNicholas A Buscaglia6Michelle DavisMichelle Davis7Ann DuncanAnn Duncan8Ronan EustaceRonan Eustace9Zoltan S GyimesiZoltan S Gyimesi10Michael HyattMichael Hyatt7Sara NeumannSara Neumann4Colleen ClabbersColleen Clabbers11Fabiano Montiani- FerreiraFabiano Montiani- Ferreira1,12CAROLYN CRAYCAROLYN CRAY1*
  • 1Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, United States
  • 2University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, United States
  • 3Maryland Zoo In Baltimore, Baltimore, United States
  • 4Santa Barbara Zoo, Santa Barbara, United States
  • 5Dallas Zoo, Dallas, United States
  • 6Zoo Miami, Miami, United States
  • 7Wildlife Conservation Society, New York, United States
  • 8Detroit Zoological Society, Royal Oak, United States
  • 9Potter Park Zoo, Lansing, United States
  • 10Louisville Zoological Garden, Louisville, United States
  • 11Busch Gardens Tampa, Tampa, United States
  • 12Universidade Federal do Parana, Curitiba, Brazil

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Penguins under managed care are widely considered to have high susceptibility to infection by Aspergillus spp. Antemortem laboratory diagnostic options are variable in sensitivity and specificity and antibody detection has been problematic in penguin species given elevated levels of reactivity observed in clinically normal patients using traditional whole antigen enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). In the present study, an alternative assay was implemented to detect reactivity to Afmp1p, an Aspergillus cell wall antigen, in samples obtained from several different penguin species. With confirmed infection, abnormal protein electrophoretograms were consistently observed and gliotoxin was detected in the majority of cases. An increase in reactivity to Afmp1p was observed in penguins with confirmed (n=18, p< 0.0001) and probable (n=13, p=0.08) aspergillosis versus normal adult penguins (n=33). Interestingly, increased reactivity to Afmp1p (p<0.0001) was noted in normal adult penguins (n=33) versus juvenile penguins (n=22, p<0.0001). Overall, the Area under the Curve for this assay was 0.890 with a sensitivity of 94.4% and specificity of 57.6% with an antibody assay cutoff result of 1.0. Increasing reactivity resulted in an increase in specificity. This data supports the use of Afmp1p antibody quantitation as part of a diagnostic workup in penguins with suspected aspergillosis.

Keywords: antibody, Aspergillosis, Fungal disease, Serology, Penguin

Received: 09 Jun 2025; Accepted: 04 Aug 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Callico, Thurber, Bronson, Barnes, Burgdorf- Moisuk, Buscaglia, Davis, Duncan, Eustace, Gyimesi, Hyatt, Neumann, Clabbers, Montiani- Ferreira and CRAY. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: CAROLYN CRAY, Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Miami, United States

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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