Laboratory Animals > Volume 16, Number 4 > Pp. 369-373

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Kraft, V. Articles by Rehm, S. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Social Bookmarking                      What's this?

Diagnosis of Mycoplasma pulmonis infection of rats by an indirect immunofluorescence test compared with 4 other diagnostic methods

V. Kraft, Barbara Meyer, A. Thunert, F. Deerberg and Sabine Rehm

Central Institute for Laboratory Animals, Lettow-Vorbeck-Allee 57, D-3000 Hannover 91, Federal Republic of Germany

Efficiency of indirect immunofluorescence microscopy (IFM) for detection of M. pulmonis antibody (IgG) in rats was compared with results of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), complement fixation (CF), cultural isolation and histopathology. IFM was carried out on M. pulmonis infected BHK-21 cells grown on cover slips or multitest slides. After acetone fixation these antigen carriers could be stored at -20°C for several months so that serological tests could be done at any time and completed within 2 h. The IFM was strain specific and the sensitivity of the test was comparable with that of the ELISA, whereas the CF-test proved to be very insensitive. For routine monitoring, only in cases of fresh infections should time consuming cultural procedures be preferred to serological tests. Chronic disease stages were readily detected by histological examination.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?