156
Contagious Abortion of Cattle, Sheep and Goats
[VOL. XVIII, PART III
to time, notably in the North West Frontier Province and the Punjab, but, until the responsible
strain is isolated, it will not be known whether these fevers are melitensis or abortus in type.
In the endemic areas of south India, the behaviour of the indigenous A/M strain in man would
be of particular interest. During the last several years six or seven cases of undulant fever have
been described at the King George V hospital, Vizagapatam [Pandalai and Raman 1941]. Regrettably
such strains as were isolated from these cases were discarded untyped, but, in the writer's opinion
they were probably A/M in character.
In view of the practice of boiling milk and the peculiar climatic conditions of south India, it
would also have been of great interest to have discovered the incidence of Brucellosis in man in the
village endemic areas of the peninsula. In consequence, a list of infected districts (Table XXXIII)
was given to the medical authorities, who, in their turn, addressed a questionnaire to the local doctors
concerned. From all districts the reply was that no undulabing-type of fever was encountered in
humans; but that, in future, undiagnozed cases of pyrexia would be tested for Brucellosis.
TABLE XXXIII
List of districts in which Brucellosis is endemic in cattle and in which undulant fever in man is not reported
District
Nellore
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Madura
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Kollegal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Sambalpur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Nawapara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Province
Madras
Madras
Madras
Orissa
Orissa
These replies are about the some of the information that can be obtained at present and, on the
whole, it appears that, if the disease occurs at all, and it would be surprising if it did not, then it does
so within insufficient severity or frequency to make itself noticeable to the local medical authorities.
When the disease is due to abortus strains, symptoms are often so slight, that in view of the numerous
transient undiagnozed fevers, which are either attributed to malaria, or treated empirically and are
always regarded as commonplace, it would not be surprising if most cases were overlooked. Un-
dulant fever due to melitensis infection, on the other hand, is usually severe and it is hardly possible
that in army circles, at any rate, it would pass undiagnozed. It must be conceded, therefore, that
melitensis infection of man must be relatively rare in India, but that an unknown amount of infection
with the abortus or abortus/melitensis strains may pass unnoticed in south India. This view is support-
ed by the admission in reply to the above-mentioned questionnaire that undiagnozed fevers do exist
in Brucella endemic tracts of south India.
In view of what has just been written concerning the climatic barrier of Persia and near-Asia
to the eastward migration of melitensis into India, the question might aptly be asked, why this infec-
tion continues to be so prevalent on the arid and sun drenched Mediterranean seaboard ?
As far as man is concerned the custom of drinking unboiled milk is, to the writer's knowledge,
universal amongst the uneducated Maltese, and this probably holds good throughout most of the
northern littoral. Infection in the goat, therefore, ensures infection in man. As for the goat, this
animal breeds seasonally kidding as a rule in February, March and April and although the Mediterra-
nean is generally supposed to be arid, this season, at least, is one of extreme cold and violent
rainstorms.