Rapid and precise diagnosis of atypical mycobacterial infection by chemotaxonomical and immunological methods

The species of 205 strains of acid fast bacteria isolated from swine and human mycobacteriosis were identified chemotaxonomically and numericaltaxonomically. The species of the isolates which were identified numericaltaxonomically as Mycobacterium avium intracellulare (MAI) complex were further classified by using both thin-layer chromatography of the antigenic glycopeptidolipids (GPL) from the bacteria and seroagglutination test devised by Schaefer. These MAI complex from swine fell into serotype 8 (45 strains), serotype 4 (32 strains), serotype 9 (9 strains) and untypable (9 strains), respectively. In contrast to swine, human isolates covered more wide ranges of serotypes such as serovar 7, 12, 16 besides serovar 4, 8 and 9. Furthermore, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) which is based on the type specific glycolipid antigen and infected swine/human sera was applied to distinguish serological variants of the MAI complex. Of the fourteen cases in swine and five in human that had been typed by both the seroagglutination reaction and the thin layer chromatography (TLC) the thirteen in swine and two in human cases showed clear coincidence with the results of ELISA. The results demonstrated that enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay using infected sera was especially useful, and it was recommended from the sensitivity and rapidity as an adjunct to seroagglutination test and thin layer chromatography for the identification of serotypes of MAI complex.