摘要：A former EFSA Scientific Opinion on analytical sensitivity of approved TSE rapid tests concluded that, during a comparative analytical sensitivity study performed by the Community Reference Laboratory (CRL) for TSEs, two rapid tests (Prionics®-Check LIA and Prionics®-Check PrioSTRIP) gave unexplained and unresolved specificity problems which hampered the interpretation of their analytical sensitivity. The Opinion therefore recommended that the tests should be re-assessed by appropriate experiments, under the supervision of the CRL. This Opinion provides a scientific assessment of a new study (“re-assessment study”) performed to re-assess the analytical sensitivity of the two above rapid tests with cattle BSE samples. It is concluded: (1) that the experimental design used in the new study is scientifically sound and can be considered equivalent to that applied during the first CRL study; and (2) that the two tests performed within a maximal 2 log10 inferiority range as compared to the most sensitive test system identified in the first CRL study, as set out in the current EFSA protocols for the evaluation of TSE rapid post mortem tests. It is further concluded that the precise causes of the initial reactives in negative control samples observed in the first CRL study with the two rapid tests remain unidentified, since the re-assessment study was not designed for investigating them.
