ABSTRACTS OF AMERICAN BACTERIOLOGICAL 

 LITERATURE 



ANIMAL PATHOLOGY 



The Maintenance of Virulence of Bacillus abortivus equinus. E. S. 



Good and W. V. Smith. Jour. Med. Res,, 1916, 33, 493-498. 



The authors present a note on the abihty of the above bacillus to re- 

 tain its virulence when kept under artificial cultivation over a long 

 period. Inoculation of 1 cc. of a mixture of eight strains, represent- 

 ing only one-fifth of an agar slant, produced typical abortion in a mare 

 protected with 200 cc. of hyperimmune serum. The strains used in 

 this experiment had been isolated for periods varying from three to 

 five years. — H. W. L. 



Studies to Diagnose a Fatal Disease of Cattle in the Mountainous Regions 



of California. K. F. Meyer. Jour. Am. Vet. Med. Assoc, 1916, 



48, 552-560. 



Discussion of the subject is divided into symptomatology, anatomical 

 findings, bacteriological examinations and epidemiology. 



Pieces of organs forwarded to the laboratory were subjected to mi- 

 croscopic examination without revealing bipolar organisms that could 

 be regarded as Bacterium bovisepticum nor did ordinary cultm-e methods 

 give satisfactory results. Of about twenty-five rabbits inoculated with 

 emulsions of liver infarcts, lymph nodes and spleen material, two died 

 from a typical bipolar infection. The cultures isolated from these rab- 

 bits gave all the cultural identity reactions recognized as typical for 

 Bacterium bovisepticum. The pathogenicity tests were characteristic 

 except that large doses were necessary to produce fatal results. A 

 three weeks old calf succumbed 22 hours after the intravenous injec- 

 tion of 3 cc. of a 20 hour old broth culture. Both strains were identi- 

 cal and serologically protected against each other and against strains 

 of Bacterium bovisepticum from various sources in the United States. 



Inoculation of guinea pigs with liver and infarct material caused 

 death from infections with an undetermined anaerobe. Bacillus coli 

 and diplococci. The anaerobe was not pathogenic to calves. Most of 

 the mice inoculated with similar material remained alive or succumbed 

 to the same anaerobe as did the guinea pigs. 



The writer does not feel that the evidence thus far collected is suffi- 

 cient to make a conclusive diagnosis of hemorrhagic septicemia but 

 as a working hypothesis has assumed that the disease in all proba- 

 bility is hemorrhagic septicemia. The difficulties experienced brought 

 forward again the fact that the bacteriological diagnosis of hemor- 

 rhagic septicemia is not as easy a procedure as is generally considered. — 

 A. R. W. 



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