104 



DISEASES OF THE DOMESTIC ANIMALS 



several days, i c.c. of mallein (this is the usual dose but may vary 

 with the method of preparation) is aseptically injected into the 

 side of the neck. A rise of temperature of two or three degrees F. 

 (in an animal of previous normal temperature) within 15 hours, 

 together with a hot, hard, tender swelling at the site of injection, 

 5 to 10 inches in diameter, constitute positive proof of glanders. 

 In the normal animal a swelling occurs at the site of injection with- 

 out fever, but the swelling is much smaller and is disappearing at 

 the end of 24 hours, while in the glandered animal the swelling is 

 at its maximum at the 30th hour. 



After several injections of mallein have been made the reaction 

 may fail in the glandered animal. Indeed it is possible that patients 

 may be thus cured of the disease, but this is not yet certain. Nocard 

 has obtained several cures with mallein. It has, however, been 

 apparently shown that healthy animals may be protected against 

 glanders by mallein (Semner). 



In suspected febrile cases of glanders the agglutination test — 

 the effect of the serum of a glandered animal in causing agglutina- 

 tion of the glanders bacilli in an emulsion of the same — has proven 

 reliable for diagnosis. 



The most positive diagnostic test of glanders is the inoculation 

 of some discharge from the nasal or farcy ulcer into a wide in- 

 cision made with scissors, through the skin on the side of a guinea 

 pig. Within a month the animal dies with characteristic lesions. 



All horses which have been exposed to glanders, or those show- 

 ing suspicious symptoms, should be tested with mallein. If they 

 react positively they should be killed. If reaction does not occur 

 they should be considered free from glanders. Animals which ex- 

 hibit unquestionable clinical signs of glanders should be slaughtered 

 without recourse to the mallein test. Glanders is practically in- 

 curable and the treatment of a case is unjustifiable under general 

 conditions because of the danger of its transmission to man and 

 other animals. 



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