HEMORRHAGIC SEPTICEMIA GROUP 



299 



of the causal organism. In the same year Smith isolated what 

 proved to be the same organism from hogs in the United States. 

 Since that time it has been isolated from animals in many parts of 

 Europe and the United States. From the beginning the close 

 relationship between the swine-plague and fowl-cholera bacilli 

 was recognized. In the early literature of swine diseases in 

 America there is much confusion relative to the use of the terms 

 swine plague and hog-cholera. The discovery that hog-cholera is 

 caused primarily by an ultramicroscopic organism has made neces- 

 sary a very careful retraversing of the knowledge relative to swine 

 plague, and it has been 

 urged that probably the 

 B. suisepticus is a second- 

 ary invader merely, as is 

 the hog-cholera bacillus, 

 and that the two diseases 

 differ not at all in their 

 primary cause. The evi- 

 dence at present seems to 

 point, however, to a spe- 

 cific disease caused by B. 

 suisepticus, and entirely 

 distinct from hog-cholera. 

 The question cannot be 

 said to be satisfactorily 

 settled at the present 



time. In the United States it seems probable that swine plague, 

 if such really exists, is relatively unimportant in comparison with 

 hog-cholera. 



Distribution. Swine plague is known to occur in Germany 

 and in parts of the United States. It has been reported from 

 practically all the States, but the evidence is in most cases quite 

 inconclusive, as the final criterion must be the isolation of the 

 specific organism. 



Morphology and Staining. The morphologic characters are 

 practically identical with those of B. avisepticus, as are also the 

 staining characteristics. 



Isolation and Culture. B. suisepticus may be isolated in pure 



Fig. 121. Bacillus suisepticus (after 

 deSchweinitz and McFarland). 



