AGGLUTINATION AFFINITIES OF THE ABORTUS-MELITENSIS GROUP OF BACTERIA WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO TWO HUMAN STRAINS

The conclusions to be drawn from this study are that while there appears to be evidence of serological distinctions between B. abortus and B. melitensis cultures as studied by earlier workers, the experiments reported in this paper show no serological distinctions among the six strains used in the study. B. melitensis II and B. melitensis III were found to be identical with the bovine and swine strains by means of agglutination and agglutinin absorption reactions in unheated sera, by agglutination in heated sera, and with the use of heated cultures in unheated and heated sera.