Toward closing a heartwater monitoring gap with a new pan-species ELISA suitable for domestic ruminants, wildlife, and camels.

A pan-species indirect ELISA for anti-MAP1-B antibodies in mammals detects heartwater exposure with 98.2% sensitivity and 97.2% specificity versus a goat reference.

• Why it matters: Species-specific serology leaves wildlife and camelids without validated surveillance tools, creating a monitoring gap for potential reservoirs or sentinels in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean.
• What they did: The prototype ID Screen Ehrlichia ruminantium Indirect Multi-species used an empirically set positivity threshold of 30% RPP from 707 heartwater-negative cattle, goats, and sheep, and was evaluated against a goat ELISA (n = 503).
• The result: It showed a Youden-optimal cut-off of 29.96% with mean inter-assay CV 7.4%, detected vaccine-linked seroconversion in four sheep, and found 4.5% positivity in 111 dromedary camels from Chad and high median RPP in five wildlife species from Kruger National Park (n = 405).

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