DETECTION OF ANTIBODIES TO AFIPIA SPECIES BY THE MICROAGGLUTINATION TEST

A microagglutination test with heat-killed, safranin-stained whole-cel l antigen for detecting antibodies to Afipia species has been develope d. An upper limit of the normal titer of antibodies to Afipia species was found to be > 10 by testing 430 sera. Therefore, a titer of 20 can be considered the lowest titer suggestive of infection. Overall, 5-7 % of the sera were positive for Afipia felis, 3 % were positive for Af ipia broomeae and 11 % were positive for Afipia clevelandensis. The fr equency of sera positive for unnamed Afipia genospecies 1-3 was < 1 %. The agglutinating antibodies belonged mainly to the IgM class.