212
Rickettsia Conjunctivae Coles in Goats
the smear but this location seems to be due to
breaking down of infected cells during the pre-
paration of the smear.
The organism stains pale-blue or lilac blue
with Giemsa. The cnromatoid masses and the
'poles' however, show a reddish hue.
With
Pinkerton's method as described by Coles
[1940] the protista stains light blue.
It is
gram negative and non-acid-fast.
As with
conjunctival rickettsiosis of other animals, it
was noticed that the heaviness of the infection
was directly proportional to the number of neu-
trophils in the smear; abundance of these cells
always indicated, and was associated with, a
heavy infestation of a large number of conjunc-
tival cells.
It is evident from the above description that
the organism encountered in the Punjab goats is
identical in its morphological, tinctorial and
other characters with the Rickettsia described
by Coles [1935] from goats in South Africa.
In the present work the causal relationship of
the Rickettsia observed to the lesions has been
accepted as a working hypothesis. In this con-
nection the following recent
opinion of
Beveridge [1942] may interest the reader. He
states that 'although it has not been possible to
prove that R. conjunctivae is the cause of con-
tagious ophthalmia the circumstantial evidence
is so strong that it seems justifiable to accept
its causal role as a working hypothesis.'
ANOTHER RICKETTSIA-LIKE ORGANISM
Coles [1931, a] described what appeared to
be another rickettsia-like protista under
the
heading 'An unknown Intra-cellular organism
of the Conjunctival Epithelium of Sheep' from
South Africa. The same organism was
recorded by Donatien and Lestoquard [1937]
in Algeria, but Nanda and Abdussalam (Loc.
cit.) did not encounter it in Indian sheep. In
goats, Coles [1935] recorded the finding of an
identical or a closely allied organism in asso-
ciation with the species of Rickettsia described
above. I have also encountered this protista
in two of the twenty-five goats examined and
the findings are briefly reported below:
FIG. 2. A schematic drawing of the various forms of
the second Ricketsia-like organism in the
caprine conjuntiva.
This organism is not so highly pleomorphic as
Rickettsia conjunctivae, the majority
of ele-
ments being round or ovoid. The other shapes
encountered are shown in Fig. 2. In size, it
is larger than R. conjunctivae and measures
0.5µ to 1.4µ by 0.4µ to 1.5µ.
The organism is essentially intracellular but
it is not uncommon to see some free-borne ele-
ments near the infected cell which are probably
derived from it. There is no tendency towards
clumping and the individual elements lie
separately and evenly distributed in the cell
protoplasm. The number of individuals in an
infected cell is relatively much smaller than with
R. conjunctivae. (Plate XX, fig. 3).
With Giemsa, the organism takes
a blue
stain which is somewhat deeper than that of R.
conjunctivae but is decidedly fainter than that
taken by bacteria; there is no reddish tint. As
a rule the whole of the protoplasm is not uni-
formly stained there being a deeper-stained
part arranged more or less in the form of a
crescent or a half moon.
It has not been possible to make any obser-
vations on the pathogenicity of this protista, as
on the two occasions on which it was seen, it
was associated with R. conjunctivae, and the
clinical picture in these goats did not differ from
that in the others infected with R. conjunctivae
alone. Coles [1935] however, considered it to
be the cause of a mild, conjunctival catarrh.
SUMMARY
1. A conjunctivitis of goats, associated with
Rickettsia, has been recorded apparently for
the first time in India.
2. The lesions observed closely resembled
those of trachoma and were, perhaps, a sequel
of some more acute stages of the affection
suffered by the goats during their kidhood.
3. The method of examination and morpho-
logy of the causal organism has been described;
it seems to be morphologically identical with
Rickettsia conjunctivae Coles.
4. Another rickettsia-like organism morpho-
logically identical with one described by Coles
[1931, a] was also found in two of the goats.
Its presence did not seem to add to the patho-
genicity of R. conjunctivae with which it was
associated.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The writer wishes to express his gratitude to
J. S. Garewal, Esq., I.V.S., Principal of this
college, for encouragement and facilities, and
his appreciation of the assistance
rendered
by M. Ata Ullah Khan in the Laboratory and
by Mr Kewal Krishan in the preparation of
photo-micrographs.