title: The serological diagnosis of bovine brucellosis: an evaluation of the complement fixation, serum agglutination and rose bengal tests.
abstract: In a collaborative investigation in which 4 laboratories took part, the Rose Bengal Test (RBT), Serum Agglutination Test (SAT) and 4 different Complement Fixation (CFT) techniques were evaluated in selected cattle for the diagnosis of bovine brucellosis, by comparing the results they gave with the bacteriological examination of a selection of lymph nodes taken from the same animals at slaughter. The RBT correctly classified all but 1 of 79 culture-positive cattle, but was more often positive in culture-negative animals than the other tests. The RBT may be most useful as a screen test. 11% of the culture-positive cattle had SAT titres below 100 iu and almost 4% of them had less than 30 iu. However, the SAT was more effective in cattle vaccinated with the 45/20 vaccine. The CFT, in 1 of 4 techniques used, identified all of the culture-positive cattle at a serum dilution of 1/4 or above and was considered to be far superior to the SAT as a diagnostic test, except perhaps in cattle vaccinated with the 45/20 vaccine.
mesh_terms: D000372:Agglutination Tests; D000818:Animals; D001428:Bacterial Vaccines; D002003:Brucella abortus / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification; D002007:Brucellosis, Bovine / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology; D002417:Cattle; D003168:Complement Fixation Tests; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D008198:Lymph Nodes / Q000382:microbiology; D012395:Rose Bengal; D014611:Vaccination / Q000662:veterinary
chemical_list: D001428:Bacterial Vaccines; D012395:Rose Bengal