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The incidence of Brucella canis (B. canis) in humans is unknown in Northern Cyprus. In this study, we investigated the prevalence of B. canis and Brucella abortus (B. abortus) infection in human sera and evaluated the results obtained by agglutination-based techniques using standardized antigens made from B. canis comparatively. All of the subjects were negative in terms of Rose-Bengal plate test. Undiluted serum samples were initially screened by rapid slide agglutination test (RSAT), and those which were found positive were retested in the dilution of 1/25-1/200. Confirmation of the positive results was performed by using 2-mercaptoethanol standard agglutination test (SAT). The test antigen was prepared from the less mucoid M (-) variant of B. canis, and 1/1,048 titered dog antiserum was used as positive control. In 225 serum samples, 3.6% (8/225) was positive by B. canis M (-) RSAT, 4.4 % (10/225) was positive by B. canis M (-) indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (iELISA). 5.3% (12/225) was positive by B. abortus S99 RSAT and 9.8% (22/225) was positive by B. abortus S99 iELISA. Nine samples were positive by both B. abortus S99 RSAT and B. abortus S99 iELISA. Seven samples were positive by both B. canis M (-) RSAT and B. canis M (-) iELISA. One patient was positive by all methods. It is important to evaluate patient samples with RSAT and iELISA. Until the notification system gives better results to the Ministry of Health, in order to reach the real data for Northern Cyprus, multicenter prevalence determination studies should be done for future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this work was to investigate the possible usage of hot saline extract antigens (HSE) of Brucella abortus RB51(HSE-RB51) and B. canis M- variant strains (HSE-M-) in ELISA by comparing the results with those of obtained from commercial I-ELISA kit for the serological diagnosis of B. ovis infection. In this study, a total of 183 serum samples collected from different cities (Şanlıurfa, Mardin, Gaziantep, Diyarbakır) in Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey were tested by using three ELISAs, one of which is from a commercial source, Rose Bengal plate agglutination tests prepared by rough (R-RBPT) and smooth strains (S-RBPT). Recombinant protein A/G conjugated with horseradish peroxidase (A/G-HRPO) was used as conjugate in the in house ELISAs. Seropositivity rate was 11% for HSE-RB51-ELISA and 3.3% for both HSE-M- and commercial ELISA. The percentage of positive results was 7.6% for S-RBPT and 2.7% for R-RBPT. Only 2 serum samples were positive for all the tests except S-RBPT. Because similar results were obtained from the same serum samples by both commercial ELISA and HSE-M-ELISA, these results may suggest that HSE-M- antigen could be used in ELISA for serologic diagnosis of B. ovis infection in sheep. Since 7.6% of the serum samples were found as positive by only HSE-RB51-ELISA, it was assumed that this test could be less specific or more sensitive than other tests used in the study. Although R-RBPT is a screening test, it showed the lowest seropositivity in the study. This could be explained by less mucoid nature of its antigen than other test systems using natural rough species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]