ORIGINAL ARTICLES
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF RINDERPEST BULL-GOAT-VIRUSES, WITH
A BRIEF SURVEY OF THE WORK DONE WITH RINDERPEST GOAT
VIRUS IN MADRAS
By R. KRISHNAMURTI, G.M.V.C., Veterinary Assistant Surgeon, Serum Institute (Madras), Coimbatore
(Received for publication on 24 March 1945)
WITH the inauguration of a Serum Institute at
Madras, much work has been done to evolve a safe,
efficient and cheap method of combating rinderpest
in this province. Rinderpest virus, modified by
serial passage through goats, was given an extensive
trial both at the laboratory and in the field and
such modified virus has now been employed for
the last ten years.* Saunders and Ayyar [1936]
were among the first to put the method of immu-
nizing cattle by the goat virus alone method to a
critical and controlled test with a view to deter-
mine whether successive passages of virus through
goats would so alter the virus as to make it safe
for use as a vaccine for protecting cattle against
the disease without anti-serum. D'Costa [1938]
says that goat virus causes a 70 per cent mortality
in hill bulls and recommends that highly susceptible
animals should be immunized by the sero-virus
method, employing ' fixed' goat virus as the in-
fective agent and slightly reducing the dose of pro-
tective serum; while Bachan Singh [1939] states
that the ' fixed ' virus from Mukteswar possesses a
low virulence for cattle of indigenous breed and
that it has been found to be safe for local-breed
buffaloes of Central Provinces and Berar.
Workers in other provinces have reported favour-
ably on the use of the goat virus alone method in
combating rinderpest, but the experience gained
in this province goes to show that this method
could not be advocated for wide use, as it produces
undesirable reactions and other bad effects after
inoculation. The object of this paper is to place
on record a brief survey of the work done in this
province with goat virus and to make a comparative
study of rinderpest bull virus and rinderpest goat
virus, with a view to find out whether there is any
attenuation of the virus when maintained in succes-
sive passages through goats.
RINDERPEST GOAT VIRUS
The goat virus is maintained at the Serum Institute
by successive passages in local breed of goats. Two
strains of virus, viz. (1) The Madras strain and
(2) the Mukteswar strain, were maintained. After
running the two strains for over seven years when
* Annual Reports. Civil Veterinary Department, Madras,
1932.33 to 1943-44.
more than 400 passages of each strain were comp-
leted, the two were amalgamated together and
maintained as a single strain, Madras strain No. 2,
as it was found that there was not much difference
in the degree and percentage of reactions set up by
them in the control buffalo-calves. In the mean-
while a quantity of ' fixed goat virus ' was obtained
from Mukteswar and that is also now being main-
tained as ' Mukteswar strain No. 2.'
The two strains are periodically tested for every
tenth passage on young susceptible buffalo-calves
of local breed. Most of the goats used for virus
production, are invariably bled to death to meet
the demand for virus. The control calves are ob-
served for reactions and then tested with a dose of
virulent bull virus, after the reactions to original
inoculation of goat virus, have subsided.
So far about 375 passages of the Mukteswar strain
No. 2, and 225 passages of Madras strain No. 2
have been completed. One hundred and thirty-nine
calves for the Mukteswar strain and forty-two for
the Madras strain have been used and the observa-
tions on the type of reactions amongst them are
summarized below.
Mukteswar strain No. 2. Out of the 139 calves,
116 or 83.5 per cent had thermal reactions, 86 or
61.9 per cent had diarrhœa, and 39 or 28.1 per cent
had mouth lesions also. There was a mortality of
32 calves or 23 per cent amongst them. Subsequent
immunity tests on the surviving calves showed that
they had acquired immunity.
Twenty-one calves showed no reaction to the
original injection with goat virus and on subsequent
test conducted on 19 calves with virulent bull
virus, 11 proved to be non-reactors and immune
throughout. Seven had a thermal reaction, four
had diarrhœa and two of them mouth lesions also.
Three of them died of reactions to re-test.
Madras strain No. 2. Out of 42 contro's used
for this strain, 40 or 95.2 per cent had thermal re-
actions, 31 or 73.8 per cent had diarrhœa and 16
or 38.1 per cent had mouth lesions also. There
was a mortality of 7 or 16.7 per cent amongst them.
Immunity tests on the calves that survived showed
that they had acquired immunity. There were
practically no non-reactors to the original in jection
with goat virus.
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