82 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol. 48 



Report of committee on infectious abortion, W. Giltner, E. S. Bayard, 

 G. M. Potter, E. C. Schroeder, and T. H. Ferguson (Ai)ter. Jour. Vet. Med., 15 

 (1920), No. 4- PP- 154-156). — The report summarizes briefly the present knowl- 

 edge of infectious abortion, and outlines the course of action which it is thought 

 should be taken against the disease. 



It is suggested that it may be necessary to enact and enforce laws against 

 the misrepresentation of abortion-infected cattle that are sold for other pur- 

 poses than immediate slaughter. The complement fixation and agglutination 

 tests if properly ai^plied, are endorsed as reliable means of detecting infec- 

 tion in a herd. It is recommended that these tests, particularly the agglutina- 

 tion test, be used more widely to protect abortion-free herds against abortion- 

 infected cattle. As special precautionary methods the committee recommends 

 the use, where possible, of special maternity stables for cows, and the universal 

 pasteurization of dairy by-products distributed from the factory to the farm. 



The education of the owners of live stock in facts concerning abortion disease 

 is considered of the greatest importance in combating the disease. 



Recent observations on contagious abortion of cattle, H. A. Reid (New 

 Zeal. Jour. Ayr., 19 (1919), No. 6, pp. SSl-SJfS). — Tliis is a concise summary of 

 the present status of the problem of contagious abortion in cattle from the 

 standpoint of mode of infection, immunity, diagnosis, and preventive measures. 



A new vaccine against contagious abortion, F. B. Hadley (Proc. Wis. Vet. 

 Med. Assoc, Jf (1919), pp. 57-61, figs. 2). — The author recommends the use of 

 live abortion bacilli as a protection vaccine -against abortion in cattle, and 

 describes the preparation of such a vaccine at the Wisconsin Exjieriment Station. 



Existence of bovine spirochetosis in Brazil. — Transmission of the disease 

 by Margaropus australis, E. Brumpt (Bui. Soc. Path. Eiot., 12 (1919), No. 10, 

 pp. 748-757, fig. 1). — The author records the spirochete infection of a cow by 

 the eighth generation of ticks received from Brazil in 1915. These had lost 

 their power to infect with Piroplasma bigeminum in the tliird generation and 

 P. argcntinum in the sixth generation, and had given no spirochetosis that 

 could be detected in the blood in earlier generations. The affection induced 

 was so mild, however, that without the aid of a microscope and thermometer 

 the .symptoms would have passed unnoticed. Immunity, or more correctly 

 tolerance, is soon acquired, since greater numbers of infectious embryos pro- 

 duced no effect on the same cow 75 days after the lirst infection. The author 

 holds that the name ^pirocha'ta thcileri should apply in every case irrespective 

 of the species to which the animal host belongs, and that S. equi and S. ouina 

 are synonyms. 



The action of asphyxiating gas on equines (Vet. Rev., 4 (1920), No. 1, pp. 

 33-35). — Abstracts are here given of two papers, one by Plantureux on 

 asphyxiating gas and the other by Quentin on the action of lachrymatory and 

 " nmstard " gas as well. 



The microorganism causing infectious anemia of tlie liorse and its pure 

 cultivation, Y. Miyagawa, T. Taniguchi, M. Nagao, and S. Takemoto (Abs. 

 in Jour. Amer. Vet. Med. Assoc., 56 (1920), No. 6, pp. 5^2-647).— This is an ab- 

 stract by C. P. Fitch of an article translated from the Japanese by Noguchi. 

 The authors' conclusions are as follows : 



" We have obtained pure cultures of a spirochete from five out of six horses 

 suffering from infectious anemia by the use of Noguchi's culture media. Some 

 of the horses gave repeated positive cultures. By inoculation of the pure 

 culture into normal horses we reproduced infectious anemia in five horses, and 

 recovered from the five horses spirochetes which we cultivated to the fifth 

 generation in some cases. The disease was reproduced in normal animals by 

 the use of the second generation of a pure culture, and transmissions were 



