A REDUCTION IN THE COST OF ANTICATTLE-PLAGUE 

 SERUM. 



By E. H. Ruediger. 



(From the Serum Section, Biological Laboratory, Bureau of Science, 



Manila, P. I.) 



The cost of virulent material used in the preparation of serum against 

 cattle plague is a question of great importance and one which has 

 attracted my attention during the past few years. Numerous attempts 

 to cultivate the specific organism of this disease have been futile, and it 

 has been found necessary to adhere to the old method of bleeding to 

 death bullocks suffering from cattle plague and to inject their blood, 

 commonly known as virulent blood or V. B., into the animals to be ■ 

 immunized for serum purpose. 



The average cost per bullock used for virulent blood is 50 pesos, Phil- 

 ippine currency (25 dollars, United States currency), and each biillock 

 yields about five liters of blood, the carcass being waste; therefore, each 

 liter of virulent blood costs 10 pesos. 



In the course of the experiments carried on with filtrates of cattle 

 plague material, I was deeply impressed (on repeating the experiments 

 of Nicolle and Adil-Bey ) by the high virulence of the artificial peritoneal 

 fluid. The virulence of the peritoneal fluid seemed to be greater than 

 that of the blood. 



Having thoroughly convinced myself that the artificial peritoneal fluid 

 is highly virulent, I requested Doctor -Shealy of the Bureau of Agriculture, 

 Manila, P. I., to inject 5 liters of a 0.5 per cent solution of potassium 

 citrate into the peritoneal cavity of the sick bullocks, to bleed them to 

 death an hour later, and to collect the peritoneal fluid and use it in 

 immunizing serum animals. 



Two series of animals, X and Y, were immunized for serum. The 

 bullocks in series X received subcutaneous injections of artificial perito- 

 neal fluid and the bullocks in series Y received subcutaneous injections 

 of virulent blood. After having been well immunized the bullocks were 

 bled for serum. The serum derived from the bullocks in series X was 

 designated as serum X and that derived from the bullocks in series Y 

 was designated as serum Y. 



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