MUKTESAR, FOR THE YEAR ENDING THE- 31ST MARCH, 1929
13
consequent oxygen starvation. Anæmia was a marked lesion and some
icterus was seen in the visible mucous membranes in the later stages of
the disease. Methods of medicinal treatment applied appeared to have
no noticeable beneficial effect, so that very careful nursing of affected
animals is the only treatment available for the disease at the present
time.
Two very noticeable and characteristic post-mortem lesions are de-
scribed. Briefly stated they consist of localized patches of necrotic
appearence in the liver substance, and well-defined small umbilicate
ulcers in the abomasum. A similar lesion of the abomasum has been
noted and recorded in the disease East Coast Fever of Africa,
It is believed that recovery from the disease leaves no immunity,
the animals remain ''carriers" of the disease, and are probably liable to
serious relapses at any time. Relapse, as noted above, has already
been recorded in two of the bulls imported last year.
The histological findings have not yet been fully worked out or
described, but they appear to consist essentially of lymphocyte " blocks "
in the smaller arteries of the principal organs, corresponding, it seems,
with the description of the histology of East Coast Fever recently
given by Steck (Union of South Africa, 13th and 14th Reports, Director
of Veterinary Education and Research, Part I, 1928, pp. 243-280).
A feature of the investigation of great importance is that the bulls
had been submitted to blood inoculation in Souh Africa before export,
with the object of immunizing them again t the African "piroplasms ",
namely. Babesia bigemina and Theileria (or Gonderia) mutans. The
fact that a large number of the bulls became affected at one time shortly
after their arrival in India, in spite of the inoculation carried out in South
Africa, shows that the Theileria parasites of India differ markedly in their
pathogenecity from the Theileria of South Africa. On the other hand
records of " serum-simultaneous " inoculation against rinderpest upon
fifteen of the bulls since their arrival in India are available, and these
records show no evidence of any disturbance attributable to affection
with B. bigemina. This evidence supports the view that this parasite
(B. bigeminum) is identical in the two countries.
An observation of interest in connection with the diagnosis of " red
water" (B. bigeminum affection) of cattle in India made during the course
of routine post-mortem examinations, by Veterinary Inspector, P. R.
Krishna Iyer, is that the capsule of the kidneys of affected animals
exhibits a distinct and characteristic blue sheen, which is easily distin-
guishable from any putrefactive changes.
(d) Foot-and-mouth disease. Preliminary experimental work upon
the transmission to and maintenance of the virus in guinea pigs, in
accordance with the work of Waldmann and Pape (1920), was carried
out during the year with virus obtained from natural outbreaks in cattle
at Muktesar. One hundred and forty-two passages carried out between
the period the 5th June, 1928, and the 28th March, 1929, using 195 guinea
pigs, showed that the virus readily became " fixed," resulting in regular
vesicle formation upon the plantar pads in from 24 to 30 hours.
Reabsorption of the contained lymph took place rapidly, within 48 hours,