[Development of a cytotoxin inhibition test for the detection of serum antibodies against the alpha-toxin of Clostridium septicum]

ABSTRACT

Clostridium (C.) septicum, a spore-forming bacterium of the soil, is the classical causative agent of the malignant oedema, a fatal infection. As immunogenic compound, vaccines contain the toxoidized form of the soluble alpha-toxin, a lethal exoprotein. A cytotoxin inhibition test based upon cell culture for the detection of toxin neutralizing antibodies was developed as an alternative to the neutralisation test in mice, which has to be done as measure of quality control according to DAB 10. Sera derived from cattle that had been vaccinated with alpha-toxoid-vaccine, and sera from rabbits, from the official quality control of six different clostridial vaccines, were tested. The in vitro method was able to detect antibodies in the sera of the cows as well as in the sera of the rabbits. The results were reproducible.