﻿EXPERIMENTS UPON THE TRANSMISSION OF RINDERPEST ^ 

 By Archibald R. Waed, Frederick Willan Wood, and William 



HUTCHINS BOYNTON 

 (From the Veterinary Division,' Bureau of Agriculture, Manila, P. I.) 



Two plates and six charts 



In combating rinderpest, information concerning the length 

 of time the virus remains active outside of the body under various 

 natural conditions is of great importance in suggesting the 

 measures to be employed in the field. Information concerning 

 the period during the course of the disease when the virus is 

 disseminated by sick animals is of equal usefulness. 



The literature on the disease consulted by us contains scanty 

 and contradictory reference to these significant topics. 



Refik-Bey and Refik-Bey(i) state the following: 



Infected areas do not remain dangerous for long if we may believe 

 our own observations. We regard rinderpest virus as essentially fragile 

 and incapable of development in external media. 



Edington(2) states: 



Similarly the nasal mucus from a spontaneous case of rinderpest was 

 found to lose its virulence very quickly if exposed to the air and kept for 

 any period beyond 24 hours. 



Stockman, (3) writing about the serum-alone method, observes: 



The virulent material does not remain active for more than a day or two 

 outside the animal body. 



Yersin(4) states that two days of desiccation are sufficient to 

 destroy the virulence of the blood. 



Ruediger(5) states that pastures which have been infected by 

 sick animals may remain infected for months or even for years. 



Hutyra and Marek(6) give an extensive symposium of views 

 of various writers. 



We have carried out a series of experiments bearing on the 

 subject of the transmission of rinderpest designed to simulate 

 natural conditions as nearly as possible. 



' To be published as Bulletin No. 30 of the Bureau of Agriculture of the 

 Government of the Philippine Islands. 

 •Archibald R. Ward, chief. 



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