Open Access 
              
Copyright: The authors. This article is an open access 
article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) which permits unrestricted use, 
distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly 
cited.
              
              
                            
                            
                            
                            Original Research
                            
                            
                            7.
                            Comparison of local Salmonella pullorum antigen with 
                            imported product in whole blood agglutination test -
                            
                            
                            Priyani Medewewa, Madalagama A. R. Priyantha, Gnana 
                            Gunawardana, A. A. Vipulasiri, Nilukshi 
                            Liyanagunawardana
                            Vet World. 2012; 5(9): 546-548
              
               
              
              doi: 
              10.5455/vetworld.2012.54
6-548
              
              
               
              
              
              
   
 
              
               
               
               
              
              
              Abstract
              
                            
                            
                            Background: Salmonellosis is considered as one 
                            of the most important diseases in poultry as it 
                            causes devastating losses in chicken industry. 
                            Proper identification of the infected and carrier 
                            birds is required to control the disease among 
                            chickens. In field situation whole blood 
                            agglutination test is performed in order to identify 
                            carriers of Pullorum and Fowl typhoid particularly, 
                            in breeder operations. In this test, serum 
                            antibodies are detected by using a specially made 
                            antigen for this purpose. In Sri Lanka, three 
                            antigen products are used commonly in whole blood 
                            agglutination test. 
                            
                             Aim: This study was 
                            carried out to compare these two locally available 
                            S. Pullorum antigen products and to determine any 
                            difference in the efficacy. 
                            
                             Materials and 
                            Methods: “Shaver Brown” commercial layer birds 
                            (70 in number) were used in the experiment. Birds 
                            were inoculated orally with 1.8X109cfu/ml of S. 
                            Pullorum at 16 weeks age. After Three weeks post 
                            inoculation, blood was collected from each bird and 
                            Whole blood agglutination test was performed using 
                            both antigen products. Fifteen (15) inoculated hens 
                            were selected randomly and cloacal swabs were 
                            cultured on cultured Agar on same day of serum 
                            collected. 
                            
                             Results: In this study, there was 
                            no significant difference observed between two 
                            antigens to detect carrier birds by whole blood 
                            agglutination test. Salmonella was not isolated from 
                            cloacal swabs since no observed excretion of 
                            Salmonella Pullorum through faces. All cloacal swabs 
                            gave negative results, when cultured on artificial 
                            Agar. 
                            
                             Conclusion: Both antigen can be used 
                            effectively to detect carrier birds under the 
                            control program in country. Keywords: Cloacal 
                            Swabs, Layer birds, Shaver Brown,Whole blood 
                            agglutination test.