title: Incidence of positive serologic tests for treponemal infection in healthy rabbits.
abstract: Sera from 167 apparently normal rabbits were screened by the Venereal Disease Research Laboratory (VDRL) slide test and by the fluorescent treponemal antibody-absorption (FTA-Abs) and microhemagglutination assay for Treponema pallidum antibodies (MHA-TP) test. Three sera (1.8%) were reactive in all three tests, a fact suggesting possible inapparent infection with Treponema paraluis-cuniculi. One hundred forty-four sera (86.2%) were nonreactive in all tests. The VDRL slide test was reactive with 22 sera (13.2%). In 19 of these, treponemal tests were nonreactive; thus the rabbits probably were not infected with pathogenic treponemes. One hundred sixty-three sera (97.6%) were nonreactive in both treponemal tests, and three sera (1.8%) were reactive in both. One serum was reactive in the FTA-Abs test and nonreactive in the MHA-TP test. The lower incidence of reactivity with treponemal tests suggests that the FTA-Abs and MHA-TP tests are more useful than the VDRL slide test for screening rabbits intended for experimental studies of syphilis.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D006386:Hemagglutination Tests; D008297:Male; D011817:Rabbits; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013588:Syphilis Serodiagnosis / Q000379:methods*