No description available.

Photocopy of typescript. / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

The use of the neutralisation assay in the serotyping of unknown enterovirus isolates has been successfully applied for years since its description by Lim and Benyesh-Melnick1. However, the procedure is labour-intensive and time consuming. In addition, the continuous depletion of the Benyesh-Melnick sera makes it prohibitive for most diagnostic laboratories to continue using the assay. Owing to these factors, a majority of laboratories only type for the polioviruses and report any other enterovirus isolate as “a nonpolio enterovirus”. With this approach, however, important findings such as the isolation of a new enterovirus or association of a known enterovirus with a new clinical syndrome will remain unidentified. In this study, a multiple-serum-pools approach similar to that described by Lim and Benyesh-Melnick1 (LBM) for the neutralisation test, was applied in an immunofluorescence (IMF) test for the rapid serotyping of enteroviruses. This test was able to type any unknown enterovirus isolate belonging to the different enterovirus serotypes tested in this study, in about three hours as compared to the eight days currently taken by the LBM neutralisation test1.

Thesis--Amsterdam. / Summary in English. Bibliography: p. 96-100.

The development and refinement of FA has been adequately investigated with major emphasis on pathogenic microorganisms. The development of this technique has reduced both the time and number of biochemical tests necessary to identify a diversity of organisms. The organisms included are the protozoans, as described by Goldman (1953 and 1957) and by Ingram (1961), viruses, as reported by Liu (1955a) and Burgdorfer and Lackman (1960a), pathogenic bacteria which have been investigated by Moody, Goldman, and Thomason (1956), Moody and Winter (1959), Deason, Falcone, and Harris (1957) and Thomason, Cherry, and Moody (1957). Various fungi have been studied with FA by Kaufman and Brandt (1964), Kaufman and Kaplan (1961 and 1963) and Gordon (1958). Therefore, due to the success of the fluorescent antibody technique in many areas of microbiology in previous investigations, the logical assumption was that immunofluorescence might be incorporated into an efficient system in which a specific organism associated with fecal pollution, such as S. faecalis, could be rapidly identified. Based on this assumption, the feasibility of fluorescent antibody techniques, using S. faecalis was investigated as a means of rapid determination of bacterial pollution in water. Although much progress has been achieved in the study of cytochemical reactions by immunofluorescence, no attention has been focused on the application of this method as a determinative tool by which water contamination, due to the presence of the enterococci, could be demonstrated. Specifically, the purpose of the research reported in this dissertation was to devise an applicable, valid, and rapid method that could be employed in the detection and identification of S. faecalis.

Several final sewage effluents from the Denton Disposal Plant were demonstrated to contain Poliovirus types II and III. Pleated encapsulated filters at pH3.5 enhanced the recovery of the Poliovirus at a higher tier in comparison with nitrocellulose filter (Millipore) and glass fiber filter of pore size 0.45u. This thesis explores problems that face us today in our quest to eliminate viral pathogens from the natural and waste water needed for human, domestic, and industrial consumption. Preliminary experiments concern the use of immunofluorescence, and immunodiffusion techniques as a means of poliovirus identification, which invariably suggests that these techniques may be useful as rapid screening procedures of water samples for presence of potentially pathogenic viruses.

The serum of an immunized animal will contain antibodies referred to as agglutinins, precipitins, opsonins, bacteriolysins, or complement-fixing antibodies (Zinsser 1952). The presence of such antibodies may be demonstrated in the laboratory, the type of reaction depending on the circumstance and the laboratory manipulation employed. Regardless of the specific serolological method utilized, the manifestation of the antigen-antibody reaction is the visible observation that such a combination has occurred.

Graduation date: 2000

Thesis (M.Sc.) - Carleton University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 112-124). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

No description available.