Importance of anti-Plesimonas antibody in the protection of rats against infection by Plesiomonas shigelloides Ronald Ndip* 1 , Lawrence Chikwelu 2 , Dennis E. Agbonlahor 3 , Eunice Igumbor 3 , Ifeoma Enweani 3 and Lucy M. Ayamba 3 1 Department of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Buea, P.O. Box 63 Buea, Cameroon; 2 Department of Medical Microbiology, College of Medicine, University of Zimbabwe; 3 Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Edo State University, Edo State, Nigeria *To whom correspondence should be addressed SUMMARY Rabbit anti-antibody raised against Pleiomonas shigelloides infections using standard immunological procedures. Ten (50%) of 20n rats died when only P. shigelloides was injected while 2(10%) died (p<0.05) following injection of another group of 20 rats with P. shigelloides 24 hours after administration of rabbit-Plesiomonas anti-antibody. In another scheme, 14(70%) of 20 rats died when P. shigelloides and colloidal carbon particles (CCP) were administered while administration of rabbit –Plesiomonas anti-antibody. No death was recorded for control rats, which received only CCP. This study highlights a novel approach in the management or prevention of P. shigelloides infection in our environment. [Afri. J. Health Sci 1996; 3: 138 – 140] Introduction Plesiomionas shigelloides, an enteropathogen belonging to the family vibronaceae, is a rapidly emerging agent of diarrhoea and gastroenteritis in Nigeria [1,2] and therefore, merits attention. However, the organism has also been incriminated in other infections including septicemia cellulites, septic arthritis and endophthalmitis [3,4]. An important approach to controlling infection due to microorganisms is immunization with a vaccine capable of inducing specific antibodies [5]. Specific antibodies are known to be elaborated following the introduction of an antigen into an animal; same with anti-antibody following antibody injection [6]. Antibodies are known universally to provide protection by lysing bacterial cells, especially following activation of the complement system [6]; it is likely that anti-antibody raised against a specific antiserum may as well have the ability to confer protection in line with the antiserum. Fukutome et al [7] reported that antibody plays a crucial role in vaccine-induced protection against the development of sepsis in mice infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Obi and Coker [6] equally documented the protective effects of Campylobacter jejuni anti-idiotype antibody against C. jejuni induced infection in rats. However, Fujimura et al [5] demonstrated that an antibody- independent protection could be induced by killed P. aeruginosa. Studies on the use of immunological procedures in the prevention of infections caused by P. shigelloides remains to be documented in Nigeria. This is important because the trump card