H. S. BAWA
9
While investigating the causes of failures in certain outbreaks it was found that
the veterinary assistant surgeons were using a very little quantity of diseased lung
tissue and thus preparing a higher dilution which did not give satisfactory results. In
one outbreak unformalized diseased lung emulsion was used but the results were not
superior in any way to those obtained with formalized one. As the formalized
emulsion gives some protection from external contamination in the field it has been
kept in vogue. Formalized vaccine prepared from the lung tissue has been used by
Viswanathan [1940] in Madras with similar results as reported by the author.
Results of the vaccination in the field, in the face of outbreaks, of 30,765 goats,
clearly show that goats do develop some immunity which is strong enough to ward
off natural attack but is not strong enough to stand test doses of virulent inocula
when given by insufflation.
Longley [1940] has tried active immunization in experimental goats with (1)
formalized vaccine, (2) carbolized vaccine and (3) living virus and found that living
virus in doses of 5 c. c. of 1:1 pneumonic lung emulsion gives the best results when
given subcutaneously in the ear ; he further noted that formalized vaccine is superior
to carbolized vaccine. The present author did not have the opportunity of trying
living virus in such a high concentration, viz. 1:1 pneumonic lung emulsion, firstly
on account of the danger of severe reaction and secondly because as large quantity
of material is required to vaccinate hundreds and thousands of goats in a flock which
is not possible to obtain from one goat when slaughtered in extremis.
DIAGNOSIS
It is not always easy to diagnose the disease correctly because one can easily
confuse it with infectious pneumonia of caprine septicaemia, haemorrhagica or patho-
logical changes met with in the lungs due to rinderpest Pneumonia due to haemorrhagica
septicaemia organism can be successfully inoculated into sheep, rabbits and mice, but the
material from contagious pleuro-pneumonia cases fail to infect such animals
According to Bawa [1940] pneumonic lesions are met in 35 to 45 per cent of
cases in natural outbreaks of rinderpest in sheep and goats; these pneumonic lesions
are generally accompanied by gastro-intestinal lesions. Rinderpest outbreak is never
confined to goats only but numerous cases are seen in sheep as well. In the case of
contagious pleuro-pneumonia the disease is always confined to goats. The
injection of pleural exudate intra-muscularly or subcutaneously into the shoulder or
thigh of a goat produces severe local reaction in 2 to 3 days which is typical and
proves the specificity of caprine contagious pleuro-pneumonia virus. In Sind up till
now not a single outbreak of infectious pneumonia, due to organisms of septicaemia
haemorrhagica, has been confirmed.
TREATMENT
Viswanathan [1940] treated 68 goats suffering from contagious pleuro-pnemonia
in different stages of the-disease with Bayer's Neosalvarsan (the dose varying from
0.0375 to 0.3 gms, depending upon the stage of the disease) resulting in 65 recoveries
and 3 deaths.
SUMMARY
1. Contagious pleuro-pneumonia of goats is a specific caprine disease and is
responsible for a mortality of 60 to 100 per cent and shows some seasonal variations.
2 The symptoms, course, pathology and epizootology of the disease are des-
cribed.
3. The etiological agent appears to be a filterable virus, since the disease is
infectious and no specific pathogenic organism could be isolated.
4. The causative agent is destroyed by heat at 60°C. for half an hour.
5. The inoculation of fresh pneumonic material either subcutaneously or intra-