250
Comparative Study of Rinderpest Bull-Goat-Viruses
0.1 per cent among the inoculated were reported to
have died as a result of the severe reactions set up
by this method and the mortality had occurred
mostly among buffaloes, which class of animals
was found to be less resistant to the effects of this
method of inoculation. During 1936-37 out of
62,905 animals inoculated with goat virus, 54 ani-
mals, mostly buffaloes, were reported to have died
as a result of severe reactions set up. Though
the percentage of mortality was negligible, the seve-
rity of reactions set up in many cases could not be
ignored though it was possible that such severity
was due to an unusually high susceptibility of such
reactors. The method proved to be unpopular
among the ryots owing to the severe reactions set
up, especially in buffaloes, and owing to a large per-
centage of animals becoming incapacitated for work
for some time after inoculation. The possibility of
setting up fresh foci of infection in healthy centres
by this method had also to be considered.
TISSUE VIRUS
Exhaustive trials with infected goat spleen tissue
were also carried out with a view to study the adap-
tability of this technique in this province and the
results obtained have been published [Nair, Krishna-
murti and Kalyanasundaram, 1941, 1942]. The
adoption of the method of inoculation with tissue
emulsion in normal saline was not found to be
quite safe in this province, as the reactions set up
after vaccination were rather severe. In the case
of the desiccated vaccine, it was found to have
set up severe reactions in some places and it could
not be said to be a safe product.
It is the general experience that the administra-
tion of goat virus, either blood virus or tissue virus,
which produces a reliable immunity, is attended
with a considerable amount of risk and that a certain
proportion of animals so inoculated, especially
buffaloes, develop a severe reaction and in some cases
mortality also occurs. As this method of protec-
tion with goat virus alone could not be carried
out with safety, serum simultaneous inoculations
is now being done using goat blood virus as the
infective agent and reducing the quantity of pro-
tective serum. The serum given is just sufficient
to ward off any undesirable reactions. Table IV
shows the number of such serum simultaneous
inoculations performed so far in this province and
the mortality noted amongst them.
RINDERPEST BULL VIRUS
The bull virus is maintained at this Institute by
successive passages in young susceptible buffalo-
calves similar to those used for testing goat virus.
TABLE IV
Number of ' serum-simultaneous method' of inoculations with rinderpest goat virus performed and the
mortality amongst them
Years
(1)
1937-38 . . . . .
1938-39 . . . . .
1939-40 . . . . .
1940-41 . . . . .
1941-42 . . . . .
Number of inoculations performed
In clean areas
(2)
5,197
48,465
40,944
78,459
74,027
In affected
areas
(3)
36,907
1,92,259
2,54,597
3,30,243
3,30,527
Total inocula-
tions
(4)
42,104
2,40,724
2,95,541
4,08,702
4,04,554
Number of inoculated animals dying of the disease
Among those
that were
inoculated
in clean
areas
(5)
..
6
..
21
21
Among those
that were
inoculated
in affected
areas
(6)
8
50
102
131
133
Total deaths
(7)
8
56
102
152
154