I3Q2 INJURIOUS VERTEBRATES 



set forms sometimes polar staining with aniline dyes. At Cerignola the 

 writer found this micro-organism both in dead and dying voles, and even in 

 some living animals more or less healthy in appearance. Certain it is that 

 the presence of the micrococcus is accompanied by a high mortality. On the 

 other hand,, in the field voles captured and examined at Foggia the writer did 

 not find either any infection produced by the above germ or epidemic di- 

 sease. 



The writer advises scattering the dead field voles collected in the prin- 

 cipal centre of the infection (region of Contessa near Cerignola) through 

 the other regions over-run by these rodents, but where infection in these 

 latter has not yet taken place. 



The writer is continuing his enquiries in order to ascertain : whether 

 the virus can be communicated by means of ectoparasites (fleas and especi- 

 ally lice) ; whether the micro-organism observed by him is more or less 

 analogous to that of Loftier and Danysz ; whether it is utilisable in field 

 vole control and in what wav. 



Alfredo Ruggeri, gerente responsabile. 



