92 Bulletin No. 207. 



toxic saprophyte and is in keeping with our observations upon 

 an oat hay which proved to be contaminated with chicken feces. 

 It has been previously reported in another paper- 7 that chicken 

 excreta from the oat hay in question, disguised in wholesome 

 feed of a horse, caused symptoms of forage poisoning and 

 death. 



(c) Antitoxic goat, sheep and cow sera, prepared against 

 B. botulinus, proved efficacious against leJial amounts of a 

 homologous toxin. The antitoxic serum afforded protection 

 in horses when administered subcutaneously and intravenously, 

 and in guinea pigs when administered intraperitoneally, against 

 a fatal amount of homologous toxin by the mouth. 



(d) B. botulinus can be cultivated in corn silage, alfalfa 

 and corn extracts, made slightly alkaline. In similar forage 

 decoctions, made slightly acid, as well as in pork broth, B. 

 botulinus can be propagated in association with Fusarium sp., 

 under aerobic conditions. 



3. (a) An anaerobic organism resembling B. botulinus, 

 isolated from the caecum of a horse fatally infected after drink- 

 ing water in which the oat hay in question had been immersed, 

 proved fatal to horses, mules and guinea pigs, administered by 

 the mouth. The clinical symptoms and anatomic changes in 

 horses experimentally infected with this organism proved to be 

 indistinguishable from symptoms and gross lesions observed in 

 horses as a result of feeding B. botulinus. This organism was 

 recovered from a horse after death following a fatal artificial 

 infection. 



(b) Antitoxic serum prepared against B. botulinus appar- 

 ently provided protection in guinea pigs, administered intra- 

 peritoneally, and in horses, administered intravenously, against 

 infection by the mouth with a lethal amount of the organism 

 isolated from the caecum of horse No. 91. 



(c) The sterile broth culture filtrate of the organism iso- 

 lated from horse No. 91 proved fatal to horses after ingestion. 

 Antitoxic serum prepared against B. botulinus, administered 



27 Proceedings U. S. Live Stock Sanitary Ass'n, 1915, pp. 22-42; Jour. 

 Amer. Vet. Med. Ass'n, Feb. 1916, 48, New Series 1, No. 5, pp. 574-590. 



