Direct Conglutination withRickettsia Burneti, the Causal Agent of Q Fever

Abstract

1. Direct conglutination has been demonstrated withRickettsia burneti.2. Sera from human volunteers inoculated with killed suspensions ofR. burnetiand from persons who had recovered from an attack of Q fever as well as sera from a small number of healthy blood donors were all examined by the direct conglutination reaction, the haemolytic-complement fixation test and the direct agglutination test. A good correlation was found between the titres of the direct conglutination reaction and the haemolytic complement-fixation test but the results with the direct agglutination test were unreliable.