P. G. PANDE 57
the previous section dealing with the epizootiology. Although sporadic
cases of the disease, and at least the first cases in an enzootic occur in animals
which are the carriers of the pasteurella, other animals in the herd, by gaining
access to contaminated fodder and litters, may acquire infection with the
highly virulent organism of the natural disease, usually through the digestive
tract, as suggested by Hutyra and Marek [1938]. The predisposing factors
have been considered to play an important role in precipitating the disease in
bacillus carriers, and this might also be the case with respect to other animals
in the herd in which the bacilli gained entrance through the digestive or the
respiratory tract. The pathogenesis of infection by the feeding of infective
lung materials and cultures as obtained in this investigation may, therefore,
be explained on the assumption that the organism after ingestion, having
established on the pharyngeal and intestinal mucosae, asserted their patho-
genic effects consequent upon the lowering of the animals' resistance due to
such predisposing factors as chill, semistarvation and unhygienic conditions
exercising their influence throughout the course of the experiments.
As a result of these studies it has been made clear that the organism from
the natural outbreaks being highly virulent could reproduce the disease on
inoculation to normally resistant goats. In carrier animals the pasteurella
present in the upper respiratory tract seem to have a relatively low virulence
and do not affect them so long as their resistance remains unimpaired. It is
known that these organisms inhabit the upper respiratory tract of sheep and
cattle [Dungal, 1931 and Jones and Little, 1921] and in outbreaks of pneu-
monia in these animals, the role of predisposing factors has been definitely
ascertained. In the outbreaks recorded in this paper, it may, nevertheless,
be stated that while such factors as fatigue and sudden climatic changes might
have predisposed the animals to infection, the existence of carriers in
enzootics of goat pneumonia has yet to be determined.
A previous infection with the organism seems to confer immunity to
recovered animals. The results of vaccination experiments with the formalin-
killed culture and the formalized saline emulsion of the hepatized lung appear
to justify adoption of the vaccines as prophylatic agents in the field.
SUMMARY
1. A description is given of an enzootic form of pleuropneumonia in
goats which occurred at the Goat Breeding Farm, Etah, in the United Pro-
vinces. It bears a close resemblance to the condition described by Kolayli
and others in Anatolia.
2. An organism related to the pasteurella group has been isolated
from affected lungs, pleural effusion, heart blood, pericardial fluid and nasal
discharges of the affected animals. The organism thus obtained closely
resembles on morphological, cultural and biochemical grounds, Jones' group
III, i.e. they are non-haemolytic, non-capsulated, indol-positive and highly
pathogenic for experimental animals.
3. Organisms recovered from affected animals could infect healthy goats by
subcutaneous, intravenous, and intratracheal routes of inoculation, producing
symptoms and lesions of the natural disease. Cultures were also infective to
sheep and buffalo calves when injected intravenously or intratracheally.