Synthetic disaccharide-protein antigen for production of specific O2 antiserum for immunofluorescence diagnosis of salmonella.

Antisera from rabbits immunized with the synthetic disaccharide paratose 1 leads to alpha 3 mannose, representive of Salmonella O-antigen 2, covalently linked to bovine serum albumin (BSA), were used in indirect immunofluorescence studies for the identification of Salmonella serogroup A (O-antigen 1,2,12) bacteria. Among 1311 enteric bacteria tested, 497 were Salmonella. The anti-paratose 1 leads to alpha 3 mannose-BSA serum identified correctly all the 63 serogroup A strains tested. No positive reactions were recorded among 1248 strains respresenting Salmonella other than serogroup A, E. coli, Shigella, Citrobacter, Klebsiella, Enterobacter, Serratia, Proteus, Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, Vibrio, Yersinia and Bacteroides. The study illustrates the high specificity of the antiserum elicited by immunization with the synthetic disaccharide-protein immunogen.