The parvo fecal antigen ELISA test is more sensitive or more specific?

• A. More sensitive
• B. More specific
• C. Equally sensitive and specific
• D. Not useful

Answer: (B)

Focus on diagnostic test characteristics. The parvo fecal antigen ELISA is designed to detect parvovirus antigen in stool and has very high specificity, meaning few false positives. This makes a positive result highly reliable for confirming infection. However, sensitivity is not as high because some infected dogs may shed little or no antigen at the time of testing, samples may be degraded, or timing may miss peak shedding. So a negative result does not reliably rule out infection. In practice, this test is better at ruling in disease than ruling it out, with a positive result strongly supporting parvovirus enteritis. If clinical suspicion remains after a negative result, consider repeat testing or additional methods like PCR.