The significance of antibody to the psittacosis--L.G.V. group antigen.

Abstract

Antibody to the psittacosis–lymphogranuloma venereum (psittacosis–L.G.V.) group antigen was present in 88% of serum samples collected in 1967 from 100 persons at Eskimo Point, Northwest Territories (N.W.T.), thus confirming previous reports of a high incidence of this antibody in Northern residents. The present study to determine the significance of these antibodies, excluded the possibility that they had been formed in response to a heterophile antigen present in bacteria, rickettsia, or egg yolk, While the sera of Manitobans that reacted with the group antigen also reacted with a specially prepared specific antigen of psittacosis, none of the Eskimo sera that reacted with the group antigen reacted with the specific antigens prepared from psittacosis or meningopneumonitis. The antibody against the group antigen was totally adsorbed with live meningopneumonitis group antigen. These findings, plus the fact that some chlamydial diseases do not occur in the North, and that the animal reservoirs of other chlamydia do not exist in the North, limit the possible causative agents of these antibodies to ornithosis, human pneumonitis, and animal pneumonitis. Evidence suggests that a unique, endemic chlamydial agent stimulated the production of these antibodies; further work will be required to determine which particular member of the chlamydial group is responsible, and to demonstrate its reservoir.