Assoc. Prof. Panat Anuracpreeda, D.V.M., Ph.D.

     Associate Professor Dr. Panat Anuracpreeda’s research interest involves the development and production of test kits for the diagnosis of fasciolosis, paramphistomosis, schistosomosis, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, theileriosis, trypanosomiasis, malaria, leucocytozoonosis, hepatozoonosis, ehrlichiosis in animals. He started the research project on the liver fluke infection which is a major problem for domestic animals’ health. Fasciolosis is a disease caused by two major species of trematode parasites, i.e., Fasciola hepatica and F. gigantica. F. gigantica is the common Fasciola species infecting ruminants in the tropical parts of Asia, Africa and Thailand, and is estimated to cause worldwide losses to the livestock industry at more than 3 billion U.S. dollars per annum. Moreover, fasciolosis is a zoonotic disease recognized by the World Health Organization as an emerging human health problem. In Thailand, fasciolosis caused by F. gigantica in cattle and buffaloes is contagious and cause major economic loss about 350-400 million baht per year. At present, there is no commercial test kit that can diagnose it properly. The current diagnosis of fasciolosis is based on the microscopic detection of the fluke’s eggs in the feces. This method has limitation which is a difficult and complicated process. It takes a long time, is not easy to diagnose, and the results were not accurate. Because this can only be detected at 13–14 weeks after infection when the major damage to the host’s hepatic system has already occurred. However, infected animals may show acute clinical signs of one month before the parasite eggs in feces are detected. Also, sometimes cattle and buffalo were killed and the liver flukes were found in liver but fluke’s eggs in the feces can not be detected. Hence, Dr. Panat and colleagues show the idea of immunodiagnosis could be beneficial for the diagnosis of fasciolosis because if how faster we know that animals were infected or not. It would prevent the liver pathology or lesion and reduce contamination of eggs on pasture or grazing areas as well. Dr. Panat and research team have conducted ongoing the research more than 12 years ago and can develop test kits for the diagnosis of fasciolosis by F. gigantica using monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies with high specificity for antigens that can be detected in the blood circulation of cattle and buffaloes. These antigens are tegumental antigen, fatty acid binding protein (FABP), cathepsin B3 (CatB3) and cathepsin L1 (CatL1). This test kit is a powerful and highly accurate up to 98.9% and also save time, costs and reasonable to apply in the surveillance of the infection, which is beneficial for farmer, researcher and veterinarian. In addition, it can also help to reduce the use of drugs and to eliminate parasites in the animals properly. As a result, animal products such as meat and milk show with the lower residues of drugs and safety for consumers, and increase the opportunities to export meat or milk to the AEC market in the future. Furthermore, another field of research interest conducting in the moment is development of Thai plant extract against liver, pancreatic, rumen, and blood flukes in domestic animals such as cattle and buffaloes. The findings showed that many Thai herbal plant species possessed the ability to get rid of the flukes in a short time only 3 hours. The development of these plant extracts is beneficent in the agricultural sector, researcher or veterinarian and economy, and eliminating the problem of drug resistance as vailable in the market and also produce the prototypes of high efficacius anthelmintic that are sold commercially in the future.

1.Junsiri W, Watthanadirek A, Poolsawat N, Kaewmongkol S, Jittapalapong S, Chawengkirttikul R, Anuracpreeda P. Molecular detection and genetic diversity of Anaplasma marginale based on the major surface protein genes in Thailand. Acta Trop 205. 2020, 05338.

2.Watthanadirek A, Chawengkirttikul R, Poolsawat N, Junsiri W, Boonmekam D, Reamtong O, Anuracpreeda P. Recombinant expression and characterization of major surface protein 4 from Anaplasma marginale. Acta Trop. 2019; 197:105047.

3.Minsakorn S, Nuplod K, Puttarak P, Chawengkirttikul R, Panyarachun B, Ngamniyom A, Anuracpreeda P. The anthelmintic effects of medicinal plant extracts against paramphistome parasites, Carmyerius spatiosus. Acta Parasitol. 2019; 64:566-574.

4.Anuracpreeda P, Tepsupornkul K, Chawengkirttikul R. Immunodiagnosis of paramphistomosis using monoclonal antibody-based sandwich ELISA for detection of Paramphistomum gracile circulating 16 kDa antigen. Parasitology 2017; 144:899-903 .

5.Anuracpreeda P, Chawengkirtikul R, SobhonP. Immunodiagnosis of Fasciola gigantica infection using monoclonal antibody-based sandwich ELISA and immunochromatographicassay for detection of circulating cathepsinL1 protease. PLoS ONE. 2016; 11(1): 1-22. e0145650. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0145650.