78 



SPIROCHiETOSIS OF SUDANESE FOWLS 



The lime ol 

 obtaining the 

 virus is 

 important 



Vectors of 

 S. gatlinaruni 



13 



disease in them as ]iiorluccd by tick liitc and by inoculation, and contrasting,' tlu^ 

 condition eansod by spiiocba^tes takrn fioii} birds early in a series of inoculations 

 and those taken late. 



In the case of tick bite tlie disease was found to i)0 of },'reat severity, the chicks often 

 dyinj? before spirocliaates had time to appear in their blood. In the case of inoculation 

 everything depended on the time when the virus was obtained. If early, in the successive 

 passages from chick to chick, a lengtliy illness resulted and tiiere was a marked reaction 

 of tlio organism against tiie virus; if late, the disease was shorter and tiieie was no reaction. 

 Ill a later paper Blaizot,' working witli tiie same strain, j)ointed out tiie curious fact 

 tliat while successive passage of the virus through chicks greatly increased its virulence 

 for chicks, it at .the same time lessened its virulence for adult fowls. 



12. Balfour- at an earlier period comnumicated a paper on further work witli the 

 spirochuete of fowls in the .\nglo-Egyptian Sudan. .\s tiie jiiesent article includes 

 and extends tiiese oliservations they need not be considered here. 

 I'rowazek,-' working at Rio de Janeiro with t^p. ijaUinnrnni, discovered that tliis 

 parasite passes through a regular cycle of development in tiic cceleniic llui<l and 

 finally in the salivary glands of Aryas ininiatKK. 



He figured dividing and resting forms and conchuled that the tick is a true host for 

 the spii-ochijete. His paper is important and requires early confirmation. 

 Dschunkowsky and Luhs^ at tlie Veterinary Congress at the Hague, dealt witli the 

 spirillosis of geese due to Sp. anserina. They managed to cultivate the parasite in 

 a special manner and found atoxyl to be a specific against tlie disease. Further, 

 they succeeded in preparing a preventive and cuiativc serum from the l)lood of 

 treated geese. 

 15. Tlie same authors' mention the occurrence of what tliey consider to be my intra- 

 corpuscular bodies in altered red cells of sick and healthy fowls examined at 

 Elizabethjiol and at Surnabad in Transcaucasia. In geese they found two forms, 

 one recalling the bodies, the otiier in geese suffering from spirillosis and formed 

 of paranuclear bodies included in unchanged red cells. 



They ask if tlie occurrence of these forms in healthy birds does not throw douijt on 

 their parasitic nature, and suggest they may merely be endogenous deformities like Kurloff's 

 bodies or Ferrata's plasmosomes {vide paye 123 and Plate VI., figs. 15 and 3). 



One would like to see their specimens before expressing an opinion on the nature 

 of their findings. 



IG. Schellack" has continued the researches mentioned in our Tliird lieport. He finds 

 that Ar(jas iniiiialiis, A. reflcxiis and .1. pe.rsicus are all efficient as vectors, while 

 Ornithodoros mouhata can also transmit Sp. (jalliiKintui. f>cr)iia)ii/.t.<:it.i avium is not 

 a carrier. The role of other ecto-parasites of the fowl as carriers has not been 



14 



' Blaizot, L. (June 15, 1910), " Etudes sur la Spiroch«5to.'!e dcs Poules produite par Sd. yallinanim (Virus 



Somali)^UDe proprii'-te de la r.ice cultiv^e sur poussins." t'ompl. Jlnid ili\i Simicci tie la Soc. lU Biol. 

 Vol. 68, ].. 2rt. 



'-Balfour, A. (Oirtoljcr 1, 1909), "Further observations on Fowl Spiroclitetosis." Journal of Tropical 



Malieine and IlijyirM, Vol. 12, p. 285. 



' Prowazek, S. (August, 1909), " Contribuii^ao para o estiido do dezeiivolviniciito de ' SpiriKlurla yallinnrain .' " 

 Mr,,,. ,l„ fn.ll. (isirnhln Cm:, Vol. I., No. 2. 



* Dschunkowsky, E., and Luhs, J. (1909), " Prophylaxis and Pathology of Protozoan Discises." (Quoted 

 in the Journal of Tropical Afnliciue anil Ifi/gieni', Vol. XII., p. 292. 



' Dsohunkowsky, E., and Luhs, J. (1910), " Sur I'Etude des Maladies Protozoires des oiseaiix domcstiques 

 en Transcauoasie." Jtee. yin. de Mid. I'M., Vol. XIV., Nos. 163-4. 



° Schell.Hrk, A. (1909), "Versuche zur Ubertragung von Spiro'li„i,i „„li:,i„,-,i,., nnd Spirucluilo <il„i-„iri,-rl." 

 Arh. aits il. Kai.irrl. GeguttdhtHsamte Bd. 30 H. 2 s. 352. 



