An ELISA with Brucella lipopolysaccharide antigen for the diagnosis of B. melitensis infection in sheep and for the evaluation of serological responses following subcutaneous or conjunctival B. melitensis strain Rev 1 vaccination.

An indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) with unpurified Brucella melitensis smooth lipopolysaccharide (S-LPS) as antigen was evaluated for the serological diagnosis of B. melitensis infection in sheep in comparison with the Rose Bengal (RB), complement fixation (CF), radial immunodiffusion (RID), microplate agglutination (MA) and rivanol agglutination (RIV) tests. Tests RB and CF detected as positive each of the 77 sera from B. melitensis-infected animals tested, the RID (74), MA (76) and the RIV (72) were less sensitive. However, all tests compared were negative when 77 sera from Brucella-free rams were tested. While subcutaneous Rev 1 vaccination induced high response levels in any of the tests, low level responses were obtained upon conjunctival vaccination, particularly in ELISA and RID tests.     

Studies on the antifungal action of potential steroid inhibitors

Structure-activity relationships were studied with macrocyclic esters of N,N′-ethylenebis-(2,2′-amino-1,1′-cyclopentene-1,1′-dithiocarboxylic acid), with compounds related to α-(2,4-dichlorophenyl)-α-phenyl-5-pyrimidinemethanol (triarimol) and with N-substituted imidazoles, all known or supposed to exert antifungal action by inhibiting the function or biosynthesis of fungal sterols.