GROUP OF SPORE-BEARING ANAEROBES 



359 



Bacillus gastromycosis ovis 



Disease Produced. Bradsot or braxy in sheep. 



An organism morphologically quite identical with the Bacillus 

 chauvcei has been isolated and claimed to be the cause of braxy or 

 bradsot in sheep. The disease is known principally from northern 

 Europe and the British Isles. There are certain chemical and 

 pathogenic characters of this organism which seem to separate it 

 from the Bacillus chauvcei. Careful comparative studies of these 

 organisms are needed. 



Bacillus oedematis 



Synonyms. Vihrion septique; Bacillus cedematis maligni. 



Diseases Produced. Malignant edema; Malignes (Edem, 

 (pdeme malin, septicemie gangreneuse, in various animals and 

 in man. 



Pasteur, in 1877, found that the injection of putrid flesh into 

 a rabbit was followed by an edema at the point of inoculation, 

 and ultimately by the death 

 of the animal, with changes 

 in many of the internal 

 organs. That these changes 

 were due to a specific organ- 

 ism, and not to the poisons 

 of the putrid flesh alone, 

 was shown by transfers from 

 one animal to another, and 

 by the isolation of an anaero- 

 bic bacterium. Koch later 

 (in 1881) studied the disease. 



Morphology and Stain- 

 ing. The Bacillus cedenmti* 

 closely resembles the B. 

 chauvcei morphologically, and 



is apparently closely related to it. Some investigators believe 

 that the two organisms are simply two varieties of the same 

 species. The organism is a rod, 0.8 to 1 by 2 to 10 ^/, with 

 rounded ends, single or in chains. Many of the cells are long 

 and filamentous. It is motile, with numerous peritrichic flagella. 

 ( 'apsules have not been demonstrated. Spores are produced, 



Fig. 150. Bacillus cedematis, spores 

 and rods from an agar culture (Frankel 

 and Pfeiffer). 



