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Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, July 2001, p. 772-775, Vol. 8, No. 4
Laboratoire de Pathologie Infectieuse et
Immunologie, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, 37380 Nouzilly, France,1 and Departmento
Microbiología y Genética, Edificio Departamental,
Universidad de Salamanca, 37007 Salamanca, Spain2
Received 19 January 2001/Returned for modification 11 April
2001/Accepted 3 May 2001
Previously a Brucella protein named CP28, BP26, or
Omp28 has been identified as an immunodominant antigen in infected
cattle, sheep, goats, and humans. In the present study we evaluated
antibody responses of infected and B. melitensis
Rev.1-vaccinated sheep to the BP26 protein using purified recombinant
BP26 protein produced in Escherichia coli in an indirect
enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (I-ELISA). The specificity of the
I-ELISA determined with sera from healthy sheep (n = 106) was 93%. The sensitivity of the I-ELISA assessed with sera
from naturally infected and suspected sheep found positive in the
current conventional diagnostic tests was as follows: 100%
for bacteriologically and serologically positive sheep
(n = 50), 88% for bacteriologically negative but
serologically and delayed-type hypersensitivity-positive sheep
(n = 50), and 84% for bacteriologically and
serologically negative but delayed-type hypersensitivity-positive sheep
(n = 19). However, the absorbance values
observed did not reach those observed in an I-ELISA using purified
O-polysaccharide (O-PS) as an antigen. In sheep experimentally infected
with B. melitensis H38 the antibody response to BP26 was
delayed and much weaker than that to O-PS. Nevertheless, the BP26
protein appears to be a good diagnostic antigen to be used in
confirmatory tests and for serological differentiation between infected
and B. melitensis Rev.1-vaccinated sheep. Weak
antibody responses to BP26 in some of the latter sheep suggest that a
B. melitensis Rev.1 bp26 gene deletion mutant
should be constructed to ensure this differentiation.
1071-412X/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/CDLI.8.4.772-775.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Use of Recombinant BP26 Protein in Serological
Diagnosis of Brucella melitensis Infection in
Sheep

*
Corresponding author. Present address: Station de
Pathologie Aviaire et Parasitologie, Institut National de la,
Recherche Agronomique, 37380 Nouzilly, France. Phone: (33) 2 47 42 77 50. Fax: (33) 2 47 42 77 74. E-mail:
cloeckae{at}tours.inra.fr.
Present address: Station de Pathologie Aviaire et Parasitologie,
Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, 37380 Nouzilly, France.
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