A plate agglutination test for the rapid diagnosis of canine brucellosis
George, L.W.; Carmichael, L.E.
American Journal of Veterinary Research 35(7): 905-909
1974
ISSN/ISBN: 0002-9645 PMID: 4842849 Document Number: 78478
A plate agglutination test for the rapid detection of antibodies against Brucella canis, using a killed and stained whole cell culture of Brucella ovis, was developed and evaluated. Maximum agglutination occurred within 5 minutes after B. ovis plate antigen was added to serum containing B. canis antibodies. Comparisons of the plate and the tube agglutination test results in predicting B. canis bacteraemia were made by testing 140 serum samples obtained at intervals from 11 experimentally infected dogs. Both tests were correlated with bacteraemia for samples obtained 3 or more weeks after the onset of bacteraemia. Neither test was correlated with bacteraemia for samples obtained less than 3 weeks after B. canis was first isolated from blood cultures. There was complete agreement between plate and tube agglutination test results on 147 serum samples from dogs in a normal field situation. Cross-reactions were not observed between antiserum prepared against Bordetella bronchiseptica or Brucella abortus and B. ovis plate antigen. Nevertheless, a few serum samples from dogs agglutinated this antigen at low levels in both tests. Such cross-reactions were reduced by increasing the bacterial cell concentration in the plate test antigen. When a 6% packed cell concentration was used, serum samples that were non-specifically reactive did not completely agglutinate the plate antigen at any serum dilution.