TY - JOUR AU - De, Barun K. AU - Bragg, Sandra L. AU - Sanden, Gary N. AU - Wilson, Kathy E. AU - Diem, Lois A. AU - Marston, Chung K. AU - Hoffmaster, Alex R. AU - Barnet, Gwen A. AU - Weyant, Robbin S. AU - Abshire, Teresa G. AU - Ezzell, John W. AU - Popovic, Tanja T1 - Two-Component Direct Fluorescent-Antibody Assay for Rapid Identification of Bacillus anthracis T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2002 VL - 8 IS - 10 SP - 1060 SN - 1080-6059 AB - A two-component direct fluorescent-antibody (DFA) assay, using fluorescein-labeled monoclonal antibodies specific to the Bacillus anthracis cell wall (CW-DFA) and capsule (CAP-DFA) antigens, was evaluated and validated for rapid identification of B. anthracis. We analyzed 230 B. anthracis isolates; 228 and 229 were positive by CW-DFA and CAP-DFA assays, respectively. We also tested 56 non–B. anthracis strains; 10 B. cereus and 2 B. thuringiensis were positive by the CW-DFA assay, and 1 B. megaterium strain was positive by CAP-DFA. Analysis of the combined DFA results identified 227 of 230 B. anthracis isolates; all 56 strains of the other Bacillus spp. were negative. Both DFA assays tested positive on 14 of 26 clinical specimens from the 2001 anthrax outbreak investigation. The two-component DFA assay is a sensitive, specific, and rapid confirmatory test for B. anthracis in cultures and may be useful directly on clinical specimens. KW - Bacillus anthracis KW - DFA KW - United States DO - 10.3201/eid0810.020392 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/8/10/02-0392_article ER - End of Reference