Abstract The clinical spectrum of human disease caused by Toxocara canis and Toxocara cati ranges from visceral and ocular larva migrans to covert and common toxocariasis. Since the parasite is not typically recovered in affected tissues, detection of parasite-specific antibodies is an important and necessary step in establishing a diagnosis of toxocariasis. Most immunodiagnostic methods have historically used and continue to use the Toxocara excretory-secretory antigens (TES-Ag) in an ELISA format to detect Toxocara-specific antibodies. The TES-Ag ELISA has proven to be specific, robust, and reliable, although questions about specificity and reduced sensitivity leave ample room for improvement in laboratory diagnosis of toxocariasis. Recent advances have focused on development of recombinant protein targets to measure Toxocara-specific antibodies. The potential for development
of new diagnostics using recombinant proteins is presented herein, as well as possible roles for antigen and molecular detection methods.