The use of fluorescein-conjugated monoclonal antibodies, cell culture and transmission electron microscopy to detect Chlamydia psittaci and associated lesions in experimentally infected mice.

An immunofluorescence test based on a monoclonal antibody (mAb) was used to demonstrate chlamydiae in formalin-fixed and paraffin wax-embedded tissues from 10 adult mice experimentally infected by the oral route with Chlamydia psittaci isolated from the fetal membranes of an aborted ovine fetus. Samples of lung, jejunum and spleen were examined by bright-field microscopy, immunofluorescence and transmission electron microscopy, and were cultured for chlamydia in McCoy cells. These tissues were compared with those of two control mice. All infected mice had splenic hyperplasia and two had pneumonia. The lung appeared to be the target organ for C. psittaci administered by the oral route. Chlamydiae were identified in the lungs of five mice by immunofluorescence, bright-field and transmission electron microscopy. Chlamydiae were cultured from the jejunum of two mice and the spleen of one, but could not be identified at these sites by other methods. Immunofluorescence with an anti-chlamydia mAb was useful for detecting chlamydial antigen in formalin-fixed paraffin wax-embedded samples.