Abstract
In the previous paper (TAJIMA et al., 1987), we demonstrated that V. anguillarum had at least two thermolabile antigens, namely k-1 and k-2. All the strains belonging to somatic serotypes J-O-1 (phenon I), J-O-2 and J-O-3 possessed k-1 antigen only whereas all the strains belonging to J-O-1 of phenon II possessed both k-1 and k-2 antigens. In the present paper we examined the presence of these and other thermolabile antigens in the strains of other O-serotypes from J-O-4 to J-O-8 of V. anguillarum and in some strains of Vibrio and related genera, and then discussed the possibility of use of a thermolabile antigen in detection of V. anguillarum. The result of the present study indicated that k-1 antigen can be commonly found in all the strains of J-O-4, J-O-5, J-O-6, J-O-7 and J-O-8. It was also observed that k-1 antigen was present in some strains of V. metschnikovii, A. hydrophila and A. salmonicida. However, V. anguillarum can be distinguished from V. metschnikovii and A. hydrophila by the growth at 42°C and from A. salmonicida by the production of diffusible brown pigment. We therefore, concluded that any O-serotype of V. anguillarum can be detected by the k-1 antigen alone instead of examining their O-serotypes.
