Objective Evaluate the practical value of the microagglutination test in brucellosis surveillance, and provide reference evidence for determining whether microagglutination test can be applied in brucellosis monitoring programs.

Methods A total of 251 serum samples of suspected brucellosis patients and 28 serum samples of healthy people were collected from the outpatient department of Inner Mongolia Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Under the same experimental conditions, microagglutination test and tube agglutination test were performed by using standard serum samples and 279 serum samples respectively, and the results were compared and analyzed.

Results The two tests shows same results in the detections of standard serum samples and healthy serum samples. For the serum samples from suspected brucellosis cases, the consistant rate of titers between tube agglutination test and microagglutination test was 80.48%. Among 279 samples, the titer consistant rate between microagglutination test and tube agglutination tests reached 82.44%. A paired T-test was conducted to compare the results of serum tube agglutination test and serum microagglutination test for suspected brucellosis cases and showed no significant difference between the two results (t=0.122, P>0.05).

Conclusion There was no significant difference in efficiency between serum microagglutination test and serum tube agglutination test, but serum microagglutination test has more advantages compared with serum tube agglutination tests, so serum microagglutination test is more suitable for promoting the application of the test in the monitoring and diagnosis of a large number of brucellosis samples in China.