Proposed standardization of the agglutination-adsorption test for Leptospira

The systematics of the Leptospira is based on the agglutination test and on the cross-agglutination-adsorption test. To obtain reproducible and comparable results these tests must be carried out by standard techniques, but the accuracy of the tests is in any case limited since immune sera prepared from animals do not always react uniformly. Moreover, the micro-organisms used in the tests have specific requirements and do not always develop properly in synthetic media. The various factors that influence the results of agglutination-adsorption tests were investigated and evaluated. Taking the results of these studies into account, a standardized method for agglutination-adsorption tests is proposed and described.