Reaction of goat's milk with stained antigens in the detection of brucellosis.

Testing for brucellosis in goats by the reaction of milk with stained antigens was carried out on 206 milk-samples and the results compared with those of sero-agglutination tests on the same animals. The authors find that in most cases the milk reactions correspond to the sero-agglutination results, and that it is the agglutination of the stained antigen which is the principal sign of a positive reaction rather than ring formation, which is very irregular. Haematoxylin antigen is generally more reliable than Bendtsen antigen, but, with either, the results should be read after 1-2 hours' incubation at 37 degrees C. The authors conclude that the stained antigen test can be used for the detection of infection in herds of goats, but that it is not yet possible to say whether it is also valuable for detecting individual infection.