COMPETITIVE ENZYME IMMUNOASSAY FOR THE RAPID IDENTIFICATION OF SALMONELLA

A competitive enzyme immunoassay using a murine monoclonal antibody M105 directed against a genus-specific epitope in the Salmonella lipopolysaccharide was used to identify over 200 strains of Salmonella submitted to the National Laboratory for Enteric Pathogens. The immunoassay rapidly identified 208 strains of Salmonella representative of subspecies I, II, III_a, III_b, IV, and V, including 89 different serotypes from 26 O serogroups. The competitive enzyme immunoassay did not give positive results with 3 strains of Citrobacter freundii and 4 strains of Escherichia coli which were submitted to our laboratory as suspect Salmonella.