160 Pyo-Septicemia of Sucklings. 



Relative to affections of sucklings of other species of animals there 

 is a possibility that the diseases which clinically and pathologie- 

 anatomically are practically identical in various species of animals, 

 bear a very close relationship etiologically. As a matter of fact, how- 

 ever, the investigators of pyo-septicemia of foals have not proven such 

 relationship. Casper and Ostertag obtained from all organs of affected 

 colts, sometimes only from the heart blood or from the joints and 

 bone marrow, the streptococcus pyogenes, while Sohnle obtained from 

 the blood and the joints of colts, as well as from the uterus of mares a 

 highly virulent variety of the staphylococcus pyogenes aureus. Whether 

 these bacteria are the original causative factors of the disease or 

 whether they play only a secondary part will have to be established 

 by further investigation. 



The natural infection results mostly through the torn or 

 not yet closed umbilical vessels immediately after birth, excep- 

 tionally also during birth. The stump of the loose, juicy 

 umbilical cord which is no longer nourished, as well as the blood 

 present on the torn end of the cord, present a suitable medium 

 for the propagation of the micro-organisms, until drying of the 

 stump has taken place. Bacteria which reach the surface of 

 the stump find favorable development in the thrombi inside of 

 the vessels. Then they penetrate along the thrombus, pass the 

 navel ring and finally spread even in the abdominal portion 

 of the umbilical vessels. 



'The extra uterine infection which causes the disease in the 

 majority of cases occurs through the soiling of the umbilical 

 stump with the contaminated straw immediately after birth, 

 as well as by coming in contact with the stable floor containing 

 pathogenic bacteria or else with the infected hands of the 

 attendants. The sucklings which have first become infected 

 in the course of the disease contaminate the straw and the stable 

 floor with their excrements, especially however with the puru- 

 lent exudate of the umbilicus. In this way the infection accum- 

 ulates in the stable, and as a result of this the animals which 

 are born later are more exposed to the infection. In this way 

 the disease which was at first sporadic may later occur with 

 greater frequency, so that after a certain time almost all the 

 newborn animals become victims of the disease. 



The cases in which the animals are affected at the time of 

 birth, or in which autopsy reveals extensive and progressive 

 changes which could hardly have developed since the time of 

 birth, can be accepted as due to intra-uterine infection. This 

 is transmitted by the placental circulation in such a way that 

 the bacteria which are present in the blood of the mother enter 

 through the placenta into the blood circulation of the foetus, 

 where they then multiply. For the intra-uterine infection to 

 occur it is of course necessary that the mother suffer from 

 an infectious disease as a result of which pathogenic bacteria 

 circulate periodically in the blood. This form of infection has 

 been observed during the course of outbreaks of influenza, when 



