THE BACTERIOPHAGE IN DISEASE 217 



HEMORRHAGIC SEPTICEMIA OF THE BUFFALO (BARBONE) 7 



Barbone, the disease 



Contrary to the diseases discussed up to this point, barbone 

 does not present intestinal symptoms; it is of the hemorrhagic 

 septicemia type. The pathogenic organism is a Pasteurella. 

 Cultures of the organism in beef bouillon maintain their virulence 

 for a considerable time — at least eighteen months. The inocula- 

 tion of a buffalo or of a cow with 0.0002 cc. of a virulent culture 

 kills the animal in between thirty-six and forty hours with all 

 the symptoms of the spontaneously acquired disease. At ne- 

 cropsy identical lesions are found and the pathogenic bacterium 

 swarms in the blood and in the organs. 8 



The buffalo is par excellence the beast of burden in the culti- 

 vation of rice-fields; it replaces the ox in all southern Asia and 

 in the islands of the Sunda Straits. It is utilized in certain 

 regions of Italy, in Egypt, in Hungary, and in the Balkans. Wher- 

 ever the buffalo lives there also will be found barbone, the most 

 terrible, without doubt, of all the contagious diseases. The re- 

 ports indicate a mortality of from 70 to 95 per cent. I was 

 present during an epizootic which raged in June, 1920, in the 

 Province of Bac Lieu (Cochin-China) where among the thirty 

 thousand buffaloes of the region ten thousand died, and I did not 

 have an opportunity to observe a single animal which recovered. 

 Recovery may occur, but it is certainly rare, and the mortality 

 in Cochin-China is certainly above 99 per cent of the animals 

 affected. 



The average duration of the evolution of the disease is but 

 eighteen to twenty-four hours; rarely thirty-six. Death some- 

 times takes place without precursory symptoms. An animal yoked 

 to a plow stops, remains motionless for a few moments with an 



7 The experiments on barbone have been performed in collaboration 

 with G. Le Louet, Chief of the Veterinary Service in Cochin-China. 



8 In two different attempts I have proved that diluted blood or macera- 

 tions of organs (liver and lung) taken from animals dead of spontaneous 

 infection, filtered through a Chamberland filter (L 2 ) and inoculated in 

 large amounts into the buffalo or into cattle do not cause the slightest dis- 

 ease symptoms. 



