[Demonstration of envelope-containing viruses by the agglutination of antibody-coated Staphylococcus aureus]

A rapid agglutination method was worked out for the demonstration of the Newcastle disease virus (NDV) and the bovine leukosis virus (BLV) with the use of specific antibody-charged Staphylococcus aureus cells. It consists in the production of formalin-treated St. aureus cells, their sensibilization with specific antibodies, and their agglutination with the respective viral antigens. The latter were obtained from cell lines infected with NDV, resp., BLV as well as with purified NDV. It is concluded on the basis of the results obtained that the agglutination test suggested is rapid, specific, and sensitive and can be employed as an adjunct means in various immunochemical investigations and in the practice for the demonstration of the virus in infectious material.