BACKGROUND Little is known about the specificity of Bartonella spp. immunofluorescent antibody (IFA) assays in dogs. Bacteremia in sick dogs most often has been associated with Bartonella henselae (Bh), Bartonella vinsonii subspecies berkhoffii (Bvb), and Bartonella koehlerae (Bk). Clarification of the diagnostic utility of IFA serology when testing against these organisms is needed. OBJECTIV...

The delivery of immune stimulating agents and antigens is a major requirement for successful immunotherapy of cancer. So far incomplete Freund’s adjuvant (IFA) was considered to be the “gold-standard” and is used in mice and humans. In this study we compared a mixture of IFA and the model antigen ovalbumin as well as the adjuvants CpG-oligodeoxynucleotides (CpG-ODN) and polyI:C to poly(lactidec...

By using an indirect fluorescent antibody (IFA) procedure, we were recently able to demonstrate that a significant portion of natural antibody reactivity to Gram-negative bacteria resided in the IgG class as well as in the IgM class of antibodies (1). The magnitude of this IgG act ivi ty had apparently eluded detection in previous studies that used bactericidal, agglutination and other tests (2...

Experimental autoimmune myocarditis (EAM) can be induced in the Lewis rat by cardiac myosin or its cryptic S2-16 peptide epitope (amino acids 1052 to 1076). To investigate cellular mechanisms and the role of antigen-presenting cells in regulation of myocarditis, we induced protection against EAM in Lewis rats by administration of S2-16 peptide in incomplete Freund's adjuvant (IFA). Protection t...

An indirect fluorescent-antibody (IFA) technique, which employed adsorbed Behring polyvalent I O antiserum, was used to detect Salmonella spp. in environmental water systems. The IFA method used in this study detected 95% of Salmonella serotypes encountered in human infections in France, with a sensitivity threshold of 7.5 x 10(3) bacteria per ml of wastewater. Specificity was assessed by testi...

In 1997, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published revised case definitions for legionellosis which eliminated the previously used category of "probable case" based on a single indirect fluorescence antibody (IFA) titer. This study evaluated the influence of revision on the case rates of legionellosis in Taiwan. From 1988 to 2002, 4615 patients with pneumonia ...

A commercially available in-practice test for feline coronavirus (FCoV) antibodies (FCoV Immunocomb, Biogal Galed Laboratories) was evaluated by comparison with the gold standard FCoV immunofluorescent antibody (IFA) test. One hundred and three serum or plasma samples were selected and tested: 70 were positive by both tests, 24 were negative by both tests. The in-practice test produced five fal...

White-tailed deer participate in the maintenance of the Ixodes tick life cycle and are reservoirs for some tick-borne infectious agents. Deer may be useful sentinels for tick-transmitted agents, such as ehrlichiae. In order to determine whether white-tailed deer are markers of natural transmission or are reservoirs for the human granulocytic ehrlichiosis (HGE) agent, we performed indirect immun...