The routine application of a microtechnique for the demonstration of leptospiral antibodies.

The microtechnique of Galton et al. (1965) for the routine screening of blood samples for leptospiral antibodies was used to examine more than 8000 serum samples from animals that had aborted and from herds in which leptospiral antibodies had previously been demonstrated. The method gave consistently accurate results. In respect of ease and speed of performance, it was superior to the microscopic agglutination test and it required only minute volumes of serum and antigen suspension. Its most important advantage was that the agglutination reaction could be read directly on the plate, and the removal of samples for microscopical examination was therefore unnecessary.