PSEUDO-TUBERCUIvOSIS IN CALF FROM 

 DIPLO BACTERIA. 



Vallee, in 1898, described a miliary tuberculosis of the liver, 

 occurring endemically year by year in young calves in the same 

 herd. He traced it to an ovoid bacillus, smaller than that of swine 

 erysipelas, nearly as broad as long, nonmotile, often in pairs, 

 but never chains, asporogenous, staining even in Gram's (I) 

 solution, and growing freely in bouillon, glycerined potato, 

 gelatine and gelose, forming transparent white or bluish gray 

 colonies. It grows in acid and fails to coagulate milk, ferment 

 sugar, or form indol. It proved pathogenic for the calf, Guinea- 

 pig, rabbit and pigeon. Thermal death point 7o°C. 



There were general symptoms of extreme weakness and com- 

 plete anorexia. Lesions, confined to the liver, resembled miliary 

 tuberculosis but without implicating the lymph glands. The 

 individual tubercle was grayish, and two or more had often 

 coalesced. The hepatic tissue was soft and friable, with a great 

 excess of phagocytes, and destruction of the acini, with an outer 

 zone of congestion. The initial lesion occurs in a capillary, 

 usually in the periphery of an acinus. The endothelium is 

 swollen, and invested by bacilli, which block the vessel. The 

 hepatic tissue proper is invaded later. This intravascular origin 

 of the lesion, and its strict limitation to the liver, supports 

 Valine's theory of infection through the umbilicus, while the on- 

 set not before eight to fifteen days after birth, implies a tardy 

 propagation of the germ. Intravenous injection kills the Guinea- 

 pig in 7 or 8 days with liver and peritoneal lesions, the rabbit in 

 2 to 3 days with hepatic, peritoneal and even pulmonary lesions, 

 and the dog and pigeon in 2 days with hepatic lesions. . Sub- 

 cutaneous injections caused a purely local lesion in Guineapigs 

 and none in pigeons. 



Prevention. Vallee succeeded by disinfecting the buildings, 

 and boiling the milk before feeding to the calves. Antisepsis of 

 the naval immediately after birth is another obvious precaution. 



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