ABSTRACT
This study was conducted to evaluate the serological responses of 952 flocks of breeder chickens with ages between 6 and 65 weeks, from several areas of the country during the years of 2003 and 2004. A total of 139,096 and 121,818 serum samples were analyzed by rapid serum agglutination test for Mycoplasma gallisepticum and Mycoplasma synoviae, respectively. The sera were inactivated at 56º C, for 30min and processed by the rapid serum agglutination test with commercial antigens. Similar parts of antigen and serum were added, the solution was mixed and after 2min the presence or not of clots was verified, indicating the antigenantibody formation. Initially crude serum was used, and later serum diluted in the proportion of 1:10 in saline 0.85% of NaCl. Of the analyzed samples, 1.58% (1920) resulted positive for the tested antigen in the dilution 1:10 of M. synoviae and negative for M. gallisepticum. Considering these results, the presence of MS in these flocks can be suspected, indicating that rapid serum agglutination test can be used as a control, to facilitate the laboratorial procedures followed, leading to other serological tests and isolation actions and the identification of agents with greater precision.
KEY WORDS
Biosecurity;
Mycoplasma gallisepticum
;
Mycoplasma synoviae
; serum agglutination