[O and H antigens of "Levinea malonatica" (author's transl)]

A serological study of representative strains of Levinea malonatica allows to identify fourteen O factors and seven H factors. The structure of the somatic antigens is rather complicated: group factors (1, 4, 5, 11, 13, 14) and type factors (2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12) can be distinguished. Flagellar antigens are monophasic; reciprocal cross-reactions between H antigens of L. malonatica are rarely found. The determinations of O and H antigens are performed by the tube agglutination method. A preliminary scheme of serotypes (serovars) is proposed: thirty-nine strains of L. malonatica are distributed among fourteen different serotypes (serovars). A more extensive serotyping scheme would be useful in the future for epidemiological purposes.