EVALUATION OF THREE LATEX AGGLUTINATION TEST KITS FOR RAPID DETECTION OF CAMPYLOBACTER ISOLATES FROM CHICKEN SAMPLES

Three commercially available latex agglutination test (LAT) kits for the rapid identification of Campylobacter isolates were evaluated against 87 isolates of Campylobacter spp. and 46 strains of non-Campylobacter bacteria (26 species). The performance of three LAT kits, MicroScreen® Campylobacter (Mercia Diagnostics, Shalford, UK), BBL Campyslide^TM (Becton Dickinson Microbiology Systems, Cockeysville, MD, USA) and MERITEC^TM-Campy (jcl) (Meridian Diagnostics, Cincinnati, OH, USA), were compared. All sensitivities for the three LAT kits were 100%. Specificities of both MicroScreen® Campylobacter and BBL Campyslide^TM were 100%, but specificity of MERITEC^TM-Campy (jcl) was only 89. 1/. The detection limit ranges (log CFU/ml) of MicroScreen®. Campylobacter, BBL Campyslide^TM and MERITEC^TM-Campy (jcl) against five Campylobacter strains were 7.7–9.1, 7.4–8.0 and 8.5–9.4, respectively. BBL Campyslide^TM was more sensitive (10X) than the other two LAT kits (p < 0.01). A one-day procedure was proposed to identify the suspicious colonies on selective agar by performing the LAT kit, catalase, oxidase and morphological observation.