CUTANEOUS IMMUNITY IN RELATION TO CONTAGIOUS 



EPITHELIOMA. 



By Norman J. Pyle, Assistant Research Professor of Avian Pathology. 



Contagious epithelioma, a disease of poultry coninionly known as chicken 

 pox, has caused serious loss to Massachusetts poultrymen by decreasing egg 

 production during the season when eggs are bringing the highest prices. The 

 treatment for the disease has not been satisfactory. For this purpose i 

 powdered pox virus vaccine, as recommended by Beach (1), was used quite 

 extensively up vmtil the winter of 1926-1927. In November, 1926, the writer 



(2) published a report on the experimental use of this and other vaccines, 

 wherein it was shown that the vaccine did produce a slight degree of immun- 

 ity, but not enough to protect the bird fully against the disease under all 

 conditions. It was thought at the time that if a method of standardizing the 

 vaccine could be determined, its tiierapeutic efficiency would be considerably 

 eniianced. Accordingly, furtlier investigations were undertaken with tliat 

 objective in mind. 



The logical method of attacking sucii a problem was to study immune birds 

 serologicallj' and attempt to produce a unit value of antiserum against which 

 the virus or vaccine might be standardized. It was naturally assumed that 

 immunity to contagious epithelioma was of a general nature; that is, due to 

 a sj)ecific antibody concentration in the blood serum. As the work progressed 

 antibodies were found, but they were present in the sera of immune birds in 

 such a low concentration that it was evident that a protective force other 

 than a general immunity was operating against the disease. Because of tills 

 conclusion and due to the fact that varying complement-fixation reactions 

 prevented the determination of a unit value of antiserum, the entire aspect 

 of the problem was changed. 



The data herein reported include: 



1. Serological studies on normal and inunune birds which demonstrate 

 that a specific antibody concentration in the blood serum of immune fowls is 

 not the sole protective force against contagious ejjithelioma. 



2. Imnumity experiments which demonstrate that a cutaneous immunity is 

 the chief protective force against tiie disease. 



3. Experiments with local or cutaneous vaccines and tlielr standardization. 



SEROLOGICAL STUDIES 



A review of the literature on the serological study of contagious epithelioma 

 of the domestic fowl reveals very few references on the subject. Beach (1) 

 mentions that the vaccine cannot be standardized by complement-fixation 

 methods, but he does not describe the technic used in the investigation. Sweet 



(3) has published an interesting complement-fixation study of the serum of 

 fowls affected with the disease. He found that hemolysis was com})iete in 

 serum from normal birds, while in serum from birds in which the disease was 

 operating he obtained fixation in varying degrees, or to use his own words, 

 "There was considerable evidence of a specific antibody". 



