6i8 COMMUNICABLE DISEASES OF LABORATORY ANIMALS 



ChevreP and his associates were able to control a small outbreak by using pneu- 

 mococcus vaccines. 



INFECTIONS WITH "bACT. BRONCHISEPTICUm" 



In a noteworthy paper Smith' in 1913 called attention to the frequency of chronic 

 pulmonary infections caused by Bad. bronchisepticiim (M'Gowan, igio). He gave an 

 excellent description of the lung conditions and of the characters of the organism. 

 The pulmonary consolidation which is usually symmetrical varies from a red to a 

 grayish color and involves the small cephalic and ventral and rarely the anterior 

 portion of the caudal lobes. In the chronic cases the atelectatic lobes are grayish and 

 firm, A motile gram negative rod, which grows rarely in the first twenty-four hours 

 on plain agar and fails to ferment carbohydrates but turns milk alkaline and forms a 

 brownish layer on potato, was isolated from these lesions. Several identical observa- 

 tions have been made before (Tartakowsky,^ Strada and Traina,'' Sudmersen,^ Sel- 

 ter,** M'Gowan,^ Ferry^) and since Keegan' the publication of the paper by Smith, 

 According to the experience of the writer, the Bad. hronchisepticum may be responsi- 

 ble for latent chronic focal lesions in the lungs, and although it may be demonstrated 

 as a common saprophyte of the sinuses and the respiratory tree in certain guinea pig 

 populations (M'Gowan), the bacterium is rarely associated with spontaneous epi- 

 demic respiratory infections. The report of Raebiger'" that a guinea pig breeder lost 

 during the winter of 1919 approximately twenty-one hundred animals from Bad. 

 brondiisepticum pneumonia deserves further confirmation. In the light of recent 

 studies, it is evident that the significance of this organism as a factor in such a de- 

 structive epidemic may have been overestimated. On the other hand, the relation- 

 ship to purulent bronchitis is well established (Keegan and others). 



INFECTIONS WITH FRIEDLANDER's BACILLUS 



Much more important as the primary cause of epidemic pneumonia and uterine 

 infections is the Friedlander's bacillus. Branch" has recently reviewed the literature 

 and reports fifty-six deaths attributed to this organism. Schoenholz and Freedlander 

 (unpublished observations) studied seventeen deaths in a small group of guinea pigs 

 purchased from a breeder in California, The animals either died acutely or more 

 often became emaciated, wheezed, and developed a sticky purulent nasal discharge 

 which is, according to Branch, associated with a sinusitis. Death followed the intra- 

 peritoneal injection of tuberculin in two animals which had been chosen as controls 

 in a hypersensitiveness experiment. Contact infections were not observed, and the 



' Chevrel, F., et al.: loc. cit. ^ Smith, T.: loc. cil. 



3 Tartakowsky, M. G.: Arch. biol. nauk. S.-Petersb., 6, 263. 1897-98. 



4 Strada, F., and Traina, R.: Cenlralbl.f. Bakteriol., Abt. I, 28, 635. 1900. 

 s Siidmersen, H. J.: ibid., 38, 591 and 713. 1905. 



^Selter, H.: loc. cil. 



'M'Gowan, M.: /. Path, b" Bad., 15, 372. 1910-11. 



* Ferry, U. S.: Am.-Vcl. Rev., 37, 499. 1910; /. Path, df Bart., 18, 445. 1913-14. 

 9 Keegan, J. J.: loc. cit. 



"Raebiger, M.: op. cit., 100, 85. Hannover, 1923. 

 " Branch, A.: loc. cit. 



