Successively, 24 isolates of L. garvieae from different fish species and geographic origin were studied by slide cohesion tests.
Barnes and Ellis serologically compared 17 geographically distinct strains of L. garvieae isolated from diseased rainbow trout, finding that sera raised against capsule deficient isolates did not agglutinate capsulated isolates, whereas all antisera against capsulated strains cross reacted with non-capsulated isolates.