414 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the action of the abortion germs. If this may be accepted as the ex- 

 planation, we have here valuable evidence that a bacterial therapeutic 

 agent for this disease is at least a possibility. The next column shows 

 us those that aborted yet gave no reaction. This should not happen 

 if we expect this test to be valuable. We may be able to explain away 

 the weakness of the test in this connection. Three animals, Colantha 

 Queen 2nd Girl, Colantha Margolyn, and 25B1, failed to react although 

 they had aborted and had reacted to a previous test. Possibly their fail- 

 ure to react to the second test is attributable to the effects of the 

 previous injection of the reagent. This is the case in tuberculin testing 

 many times. In the case of 22A, we see that the test was made over one 

 month after the abortion. Possibly, the effects of the abortion did not re- 

 main long after the act, thus leaving the animal not in a position to re- 

 spond to the reagent. This suggestion, however, will not explain the ab- 

 sence of a reaction in Rebella. We are perfectly willing to admit that all 

 of the possible explanations are very weak. The fourth column gives 

 the reactors that aborted. These are the real tests of the diagnostic 

 agent. Two of these cases, 21A1 and Bonheur Lassie 2nd, may bo dis- 

 carded as of little value on account of their high pre-injection tempera- 

 tures. In other cases, also, the temperature response was slight. Little 

 significance need be attached to the last column. At least, these animals 

 acted as one would expect. 



In connection with the observations on sterility previously made, we 

 call attention to the following observations: On July 1st, 1912, the 

 herdsman reported the following animals probablv safelv in calf, viz.: 

 Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20, '28, 30; the following 

 were not safely in calf and had been bred repeatedly : Nos. 9, 16, 19, 21, 

 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 31, 32, 33. The remaining animals had been 

 either killed or sold. It is of interest to note the large number of fail- 

 ures to breed in those animals listed in Table II. An explanation does 

 not suggest itself to us. 



In conclusion, we wish to call attention to the weakness of the "abor- 

 tin" test as a diagnostic, but hasten to add that it should not be con- 

 demned too harshly or rejected until its true worth has been determined. 

 We suggest the advisability of making parallel tests with the agglutina- 

 tion test, complement fixation test and with "abortin." Finally, it is 

 gratifying to note the apparent entire absence of untoward effects re- 

 sulting from the use of either living cultures of Bact. abortus or sterile 

 filtrate from its growth. 



Thanks are due Profs. Anderson and Brown for permitting the use 

 of their herds, also to Mr. Himmelberger for valuable assistance in pur- 

 suing these investigations. 



References. 



1. Epizootic abortion in cattle. Dept. of Dept. Com. of Bd. of Agr. 

 and Fisheries, Gr. Br., 1909. 



2. The agglutination test in the diagnosis of bovine contagi(Tus abor- 

 tion. Jour. Comp. Path, and Ther., Mar., 1912, pj). 22-38. 



3. Contributions to Ihe diagnosis of infectious abortion in bovines. 

 Berl. Tierarztl. Wochenschr. 27 (1911). No. 40, pp. 721-727. 



