Abstract
During the course of a survey for brucella agglutinins made on sera discarded from the Wassermann laboratory (C. W. E., N. B. McC. and G. A. B.), a blood bank donor was found to have a brucella agglutinin titer of 1:200. This individual was a healthy male who, 3 months previously, had been experimentally vaccinated by one of us (W. B.) with U. S. Army cholera vaccine. The possibility that this finding might be more than a coincidental occurrence led us to examine the stored sera from the cholera studies for brucella agglutinins.
Methods and Material. Thirty-four individuals were given either regular U. S. Army cholera vaccination or varying amounts of an experimental cholera vaccine consisting of extracted cell residue. Whereas the Army vaccine contained both H and O antigens, the experimental vaccine contained primarily the O antigen. The vaccines were given in 2 doses of 0.5 and 1.0 cc with an interval of one week between inoculations. Sera were collected before immunization and at 1. 2, 5 and 9 weeks after completion of the vaccination. Brucella agglutinin titers were determined by the rapid slide method of Huddleson, using the standard dilutions from 1:25 to 1:500. The subjects were divided into 4 groups:
Group I-7 subjects, routine U. S. Army cholera vaccination, 8,000 million organisms per cc.
Group II-8 subjects, experimental vaccine, 8,000 million organisms per cc.
Group III-10 subjects, experimental vaccine, 24,000 million organisms per cc.
Group IV-9 subjects, experimental vaccine, 40,000 million organisms per cc.
Five post-immunization sera from 3 individuals were further studied by reciprocal agglutinin absorption tests, using as antigens a live virulent strain of Br. abortus and a live 24-hour culture of Vibrio comma. After absorption with brucella, the sera were tested with cholera antigens 1 containing HO and containing only O antigen.
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