6 14 COMMUNICABLE DISEASES OF LABORATORY ANIMALS 



which should never be introduced into the common herd without previous serum or 

 skin tests. Then again a well-trained animal caretaker will take special precautions 

 against cross infections through the excreta of other animals (gray and white mice 

 [Smith and Nelson] and wild rats) and through the agencies of contaminated food 

 (stale bread [Howell and Schultz]).' 



PSEUDOTUBERCULOSIS 



The designation of any disease characterized by pathologic-anatomical lesions 

 similar to those produced by the tubercle bacilli as pseudotuberculosis has led to a 

 great deal of confusion (Poppe).^ It is well known that the guinea pig responds to 

 various inert substances, parasitic, toxic, and bacterial agents, with the formation of 

 pseudotubercles. In many instances cited in the literatures morbid changes resem- 

 bling pseudotuberculosis have been produced artificially and such cases have no rela- 

 tionship to a spontaneous communicable disease (Dessy).^ In Europe, especially in 

 Italy (Byloff,"* Zagari,^ Petrie and O'Brien,'' Grancher and Ledoux-Lebard,^ Bonome,* 

 Cagnetto,' Cipollina,'" De Blasi," Ramon, '^ Bachmann,''' Van Saceghem,'^ Dessy,'s 

 Toschiana,'*' and others), and less frequently in the United States (Branch, '^Meyerand 

 Batchelder'^), destructive epidemics caused by the B. pseudotuberculosis {rodentium) 

 Pfeiffer, or B. pseudopestis or Streptobacillus pse^idotuberculosis {rodentium), or 

 Corynebacterium rodentium. or "Bac. de Malassez et Vignal" have been reported. 

 This organism on account of its close relationship to B. pestis as established by Galli- 

 Valerio, Zlatogoroff, MacConkey, Rowland, and others has been carefully described 

 in the papers by Kakehi" and Romisch.-" 



Microscopically it is demonstrated with difficulty in the typical chronic lesions; the 

 intracellular localization is then the most common. As a gram negative, non-motile, plump, 

 coccoid, distinctly bipolar rod (Wayson's stain) frequently in short chains, the bacterium 

 grows well aerobically in characteristic colonies (Meyer and Batchelder, Kakehi) on plain 



I Howell, K. M., and Schultz, O. T.: loc. cit. 



^Poppe, K.: Handb. d. path. Mikroorg. (2d ed.), 5, 775. Jena, 1913. 

 3 Dessy, G.: Boll. delVIstit. sieroterap. milancsc, 4, 123. 1925. 

 '• Byloff, K.: Ccntralbl. f. BaklerioL, 41, 707 and 789. 1906. 42, 5. 1906. 

 5 Zagari, G.: Fortschr. d. Med., 8, 569. 1890. 

 ^ Petrie, G. F., and O'Brien, R. A.: loc. cit. 



7 Grancher, M., and Ledoux-Lebard: Arch. d. med. exper. el d^anat. path., i, 203. 18S9-90. 

 ' Bonome, L.: Arch, per le med. sc, 21, 305. 1897. 

 ' Cagnetto, J.: Ann. de Vlnsl. Pasteur, 19, 449. 1905. 



" Cipollina, A.: Ann. d'ig., 10, i. 1900. " de Blasi, D.: Ibid., 18, 611. 1908. 



" Ramon, G.: Ann. de rinsl. Pasteur, 28, 586. 1914. 

 '3 Bachmann, W.: Centralbl. f. BaklerioL, 87, 171. 1921. 

 "•van Saceghem, R.: Compt. rend. Soc. de biol., 86, 281. 1922. 



'5 Dessy, G.: op. cit., 4, 133. 1925. '^Toschiana, L.: Patholugica, 18, 239. 1926. 



"Branch, A.: J. Infect. Dis., 40, 533. 1927. 

 '* Meyer, K. F., and Batchelder, A. P.: ibid., 39, 383. 1926. 

 "9 Kakehi, S.: /. Path, b' Bad., 20, 269. 1916. 

 ™Romisch: Ztschr.f. Injeklionskrankh.d. Haiistiere, 21, 138, 212. 1920. 



