Salmonellosis is one of the most important zoonotic diseases worldwide. Salmonella infections in wild birds are reported frequently. The objectives of this study were to isolate Salmonella serovars from a large collection of samples obtained from pet birds in Tehran, Iran, and then to determine the serotypes and antimicrobial susceptibility profile of the isolates. Between October 2007 and Augu...

New Zealand is experiencing an epidemic of serogroup B meningococcal disease, which has taken the rate of disease from an average of 1.5/100,000 population in the preepidemic years of 1989 and 1990 to 14.0/100,000 in 1996. Sterile-site isolates of Neisseria meningitidis from cases of invasive disease have been phenotypically characterized by serogrouping, serotyping, and serosubtyping, revealin...

Neisseria meningitidis is a major cause of bacterial meningitis and a considerable health problem in the 25 countries of the 'African Meningitis Belt' that extends from Senegal in West Africa to Ethiopia in the East. Approximately 80% of cases of meningococcal meningitis in Africa have been caused by strains belonging to capsular serogroup A. After the introduction of a serogroup A conjugate po...

A new monoclonal antibody (5F81A4P1.9), which is specific for subtype 9 antigen of meningococci, was studied. The antibodies were raised against a previously non-typable (NT) serogroup B strain from Brazilian patients and were found to react with the subtype antigen of prototype reference strains for subtype 9 (M982), as well as with those of homologous strains. The subtype 9 epitope was found ...

Two groups of volunteers were immunized with either a serogroup A plus C meningococcal polysaccharide vaccine or a combined serogroup B polysaccharide-serotype 2 protein vaccine. Serum opsonin responses were measured by chemiluminescence of polymorphonuclear leukocytes exposed to opsonized live meningococci. Two of the six volunteers immunized with the A plus C vaccine had an increase in serum ...

Meningococcal disease is communicable by close contact or droplet aerosols. Striking features are high case fatality rates and peak incidences of invasive disease in infants, toddlers and adolescents. Vaccine development is hampered by bacterial immune evasion strategies including molecular mimicry.As for Haemophilus influenzae and Streptococcus pneumoniae, no vaccine has therefore been develop...