Serotyping of campylobacters by co-agglutination on the basis of heat-stable antigens.

A new and simple method of serotyping campylobacters has been developed which utilises co-agglutination to detect the presence of heat-stable antigens. Campylobacters are heated at 75 degrees C for 30 min to destroy antigenic protein and allowed to react on a glass slide with staphylococci coated with antibody. Of 74 isolates, 67 gave the same result by co-agglutination and the previously described passive haemagglutination method. The co-agglutination technique may be used as a rapid screening test before serotyping by passive haemagglutination.