SEPTIC PI.EURO-PNEUMONIA IN RUMINANTS 

 AND PIGS. 



Synonyms. Pneumo-enteritis of the young, April disease of 

 calves. Calf-disease. Septiasmia hcsmorrhagica. 



Definition. A bacteridian disease of young ruminants and 

 swine, characterized by a lobular pneumonia, pleurisy and often 

 enteritis. 



History. Reported by Roche lyubin in 185 1, in France ; it was 

 noted in calves in 1884-5, by Castagna, Rodina, Griffa, and Per- 

 roncito in Italy, — in pigs in 1887 in Holland, by Poels, — and by 

 Stohr, EUenberger, Funstug, Trincherd, Semmer and others in 

 Germany. 



Causes. The essential cause is a microbe, pneumo-bacillus sep- 

 ticus, but which has been held to be polymorphic having been de- 

 scribed by Perroncito as a micrococcus, and again by the same ob- 

 server and Galtier as a dipplococcus , and aga in by Poels and Sem- 

 mer as a very fine bacillus. It belongs to the hcemorrhagic septicae- 

 mia group, and has the characters of Trevisan's Pasteurella : — 

 a very small organism like that of mouse and rabbit septicsemia, 

 showing polar staining so as to resemble a dipplococcus, staining 

 readily by the aniline colors, and bleached in iodine solutions. 

 It is aerobic yet facultative anaerobic, and grows readily in ordi- 

 nary culture media, soil, water, manure, liquid manure, and for- 

 ages, and survives drying, putrefaction, freezing, and the pres- 

 ence and growth of cryptogams. The contagion, therefore, may 

 come through water, food, or soil, or by passing from one animal 

 to another, as when an infected calf or pig is brought into a build- 

 ing. It may enter the system by the mouth from the teats of 

 the dam, the milk or food, the trough, the water, the dust, and 

 by open sores, particularly the navel of the new born. In the 

 la,st case it may remain quiescent for a length of time in a 

 thrombus to develop the disease later when the clot comes to be 

 broken up. Intratracheal injection of cultures of the bacillus 

 promptly produces the lung affection. Perroncito noted that out- 

 breaks were especially common in the litters of sows, fed cow's 

 milk. 



