Determining the profile of antigen expression among meningococci is important for epidemiologic surveillance and vaccine development. To this end, two new mouse monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) have been derived against Neisseria meningitidis proteins (class 5). The MAbs were reactive against outer membrane antigens and were bactericidal. Selected anti-class 5 MAbs [(5.1)-3E6-2; (5.3)-3BH4-C7; (5.4...

This study describes all episodes of invasive meningococcal disease (n=120) acquired in north Queensland over the 5 year period 1995 to 1999. Indigenous people had a 3-fold greater risk than others of acquiring invasive meningococcal disease. There were 7 deaths, six in non-indigenous people. The majority (72.4%) of identified isolates were serogroup B. We found no evidence of significant resis...

Environmental monitoring and clinical surveillance for Legionella species were done for 12 months as recommended by the Allegheny County Health Department (Pittsburgh). The water system of a hospital was found to be colonized with Legionella pneumophila serogroup 5. Three patients with nosocomial L. pneumophila serogroup 5 disease were subsequently diagnosed after laboratory tests for legionell...

The prevalence and serogroups of Salmonella recovered following air chilling were determined for both enriched neck skin and matching enriched whole carcass samples. Commercially processed and eviscerated carcasses were air chilled to 4°C before removing the neck skin (8.3 g) and stomaching in 83 mL buffered peptone water. The remaining carcass was subjected to whole carcass enrichment in 500 m...

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) is a leading cause of infectious diarrhea worldwide. Four categories of antigens have been commonly studied: O serogroup, H serogroup, colonization factor antigens (CFA), and toxins. A database has been complied from published reports of nearly 1,000 ETEC isolates from 18 locations and analyzed to determine the occurrence, distribution, and associations o...

Three strains of Legionella feeleii from patients with pneumonia (425-MI-H, 691-WI-H, and 693-WI-H) and one environmental strain (713-MI-E) received at the Centers for Disease Control for reference diagnostic testing were compared with the type strain WO-44C-C3 (ATCC 35072) by DNA hybridization, chemical analysis of cellular fatty acids and ubiquinones, biochemical tests, and serological charac...

The serogroup A meningococcal conjugate vaccine MenAfriVac has the potential to confer herd immunity by reducing carriage prevalence of epidemic strains. To better understand this phenomenon, we initiated a meningococcal carriage study to determine the baseline carriage rate and serogroup distribution before vaccine introduction in the 1- to 29-year old population in Burkina Faso, the group cho...

UNLABELLED The structures of Streptococcus pneumoniae capsular polysaccharides (CPSs) are essential for defining the antigenic as well as genetic relationships between CPS serotypes. The four serotypes that comprise CPS serogroup 35 (i.e., types 35F, 35A, 35B, and 35C) are known to cross-react with genetically related type 20, 29, 34, 42, or 47F. While the structures of CPS serotype 35A (CPS35A...

BACKGROUND The conjugate vaccine against serogroup A Neisseria meningitidis (NmA), MenAfriVac, was first introduced in mass vaccination campaigns of the 1-29-year-olds in Burkina Faso in 2010. The aim of this study was to genetically characterize meningococcal isolates circulating in Burkina Faso before and up to 13 months after MenAfriVac mass vaccination. METHODS A total of 1,659 meningococ...

Rectal fecal samples were taken once a week from 49 calves on the same farm. In addition, the dams of the calves were sampled at the time of calf birth and at the end of the study. Strains of verocytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli (VTEC) were isolated from these samples by using PCR and DNA probe hybridization tests and were characterized with respect to serotype, verocytotoxin gene (vtx) typ...