Allergy in Brucella Infections

Abstract

Cutaneous hypersensitiveness to specific antigen as a test for Brucella infection has been used by several authors.1-11 Unfortunately, the diversity of preparations used as antigen makes correlation of results difficult. As a rule, a positive reaction has been considered as denoting past or present infection.Recently, the authors12 published a method for the preparation of a purified protein-antigen from Brucella and decided to use the preparation to investigate cutaneous hypersensitiveness to Brucella among milkers and cattle handlers in farms near the city of San Juan, P. R., where endemic abortion in cattle is prevalent. The method used was as follows: The desired amount of the purified protein produced from the Brucella organism is accurately weighed and suspended in a few cc of saline; then enough drops of N/10 hydroxide solution are added until a clear solution is obtained, and this is brought back to neutrality with N/10 HCl. The resulting solution is diluted with saline so that it may contain 0.1 ...