Summary Synthetic Salmonella O‐antigens of a new copolymeric type, unlike natural antigens (lipopolysaccharides), exhibit monospecificity for groupspecific factors 0:3, 0:4, and 0:9 of Salmonella serogroups E, B, and D, and are, by 1–2 orders of magnitude, more sensitive in double immunodiffusion and passive hemagglutination inhibition tests. The use of the synthetic antigens for detection of antibodies in patients' sera by means of passive hemagglutination increased the specificity of this test considerably, thereby improving immunodiagnosis of salmonellosis.

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