A rapid slide agglutination test for the serodiagnosis of Brucella canis infection that employs a variant (M-) organism as antigen

An improved antigen is described for use in the serodiagnosis of canine brucellosis. The novel antigen employs a less mucoid (M-) variant of B. canis. The replacement of Brucella ovis with B. canis (M-) cells as antigen in slide agglutination tests would increase accuracy by reducing the rate of false positive results from ca. 50% to ca. 10%. Rose bengal stained B. canis (M-) cells are slightly more sensitive than the commercially available Brucella ovis as slide test antigens. Both test procedures require brief (less than 1 min) reaction with 2-mercaptoethanol in order to reduce the rate of false positive reactions.