Mycobacterial agglutination-inhibition test.

The mycobacterial agglutination-inhibition test (MAIT) is described as a modification of the mycobacterial agglutination of Schaefer (MATS). It is an organized assemblage of absorption and agglutination tests which is especially useful in the identification of Mycobacterium avium isolates normally excluded from serological identification because of unstable cell suspension characteristics. The identity of 100 unstable M. avium and 3 unstable Mycobacterium intracellulare isolates was determined by the MAIT method and by animal pathogenicity tests. The comparability of the MAIT and MATS methods was demonstrated by testing 10 stable M. avium and 10 stable M. intracellulare isolates by both methods and obtaining the same serological identification for each culture. The reproducibility of the MAIT was confirmed when the same result was obtained in three consecutive tests on each of the 123 cultures used in this evaluation.