Seroreactivity of an antigen of Leptospira interrogans serovar grippotyphosa

Antigen was extracted from L. interrogans sr grippotyphosa by sodium tauroc holate treatment and characterized. Using and ELISA the extracted antigen s howed higher reactivity with the homologous antiserum than observed with an tisera against serovars canicola, pomona, pyrogenes, hardjo, ballum, patoc and andamana. Fractionation of the extracted antigen employing ion-exchange chromatography resulted in the separation of relatively specific major pro tein along with non-reactive proteins. Use of the antigen for conducting EL ISA for serodiagnosis of leptospirosis in field cattle indicated that, as c ompared to microscopic agglutination test, it was slightly less sensitive b ut was equally specific.