An immunization scheme for production of antiserum to staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA) is proposed. The reference method of Robbins and Bergdoll was modified to reduce the number of doses and the amount of toxin used per animal. The best immunization scheme used injections in days 0, 8, 24, 59, 62 and 67. The amount of toxin at each injection was 5, 6, 20, 50, 100 and 200<FONT FACE="Symbol">m</font>g, respectively. The total amount of toxin was 381<FONT FACE="Symbol">m</font>g, which corresponded to a reduction of 107<FONT FACE="Symbol">m</font>g in the amount of toxin for each animal when compared to the reference method. The average antiserum titer using the Optimum Sensitivity Plate - OSP was 1:60 and using ELISA the titer was 1:100.000. The lack of cross-reactivity with other staphylococcal enterotoxins indicated high specificity of the antibody to SEA. The proposed immunization scheme was adequate to produce specific SEA antisera, with high titers and the aditional advantage of reducing the amount of purified SEA required for immunization.
Staphylococcus aureus; enterotoxins; detection; immunization
