ORNITHOSIS: EXPERIMENTAL IMMUNOFLUORESCENT STUDIES

The fluorescent antibody technique, since its first application to the study of microorganisms (2), has been successfully applied to the identification of microorganisms in clinical specimens (4,9,12,13). With respect to the causative agent of ornithosis in turkeys, one investigator (5) applied this method to the identification of this agent in direct smears but reported the method gave poor results. Nevertheless, because of its potential value in diagnostic and epidemiological studies of this disease, application of the fluorescent antibody technique to the detection of this infectious agent was re-examined.