COMPARISON OF OVINE ABORTION AND NON-ABORTION ISOLATES OF CHLAMYDIA-PSITTACI USING INCLUSION MORPHOLOGY, POLYACRYLAMIDE-GEL ELECTROPHORESIS, RESTRICTION-ENDONUCLEASE ANALYSIS AND REACTIVITY WITH MONOCLONAL-ANTIBODIES

Twelve reference and four Northern Ireland ovine Chlamydia psittaci is olates including ovine abortion, faecal, conjunctivitis and arthritis isolates were compared. Inclusion morphology was shown to provide a us eful means of differentiating the abortion and the non-abortion isolat es studied. Identical SDS-PAGE polypeptide profiles were produced by t he ovine abortion isolates. The polypeptide profiles of the non-aborti on isolates were similar to one another and clearly distinct from the abortion isolate profiles. The restriction endonuclease profiles of th e abortion isolates were remarkably similar whereas different profiles were produced by most of the non-abortion isolates. Monoclonal antibo dies were prepared and characterized. A number of these reacted with a ll the isolates of chlamydia tested. Three mAbs reacted exclusively wi th the ovine abortion isolates while four mAbs reacted exclusively wit h a number of the faecal isolates.