16 REPORT OF THE IMPERIAL INSTITUTE OF VETERINARY RESEARCH,
Indian Research Fund Association at the end of the financial year,
and Dr. M. B. Soparkar changed his headquarters to Kasauli. Dr.
Soparkar's own report of his work during the year is as follows :—
" Tuberculosis. The work upon problems of tuberculosis affecting cattle in India
was continued by Dr. M. B. Soparkar who was deputed to this Institute by the Indian
Research Fund Association for the purpose.
Mention was made in the report for the last year of the high incidence (16 per cent.)
of tuberculosis found among cattle slaughtered at Ferozepur and Lahore. Forty-two
strains of tubercle bacilli were isolated from material collected from the lesions detected
in the animals. The character of these strains was studied and they were all found to be
of the bovine type.
Investigation of the nature of organisms causing surgical tuberculosis in human beings
was continued. A strain isolated from tuberculous cervical glands in a girl aged 14 was
found to belong to the avian type. The finding is of interest on account of the rarity
with which infection with the avian tubercle bacillus is found in human beings. Another
case was discovered recently in which a strain isolated from tuberculous glands from a
patient from Bombay was found to be of the bovine type. This is the first instance in
which a case of surgical tuberculosis in man in India has been found to be caused by the
bovine bacillus.
Previous experiments had shown that a dose of 50 mg. of virulent tubercle bacilli
inoculated subcutaneously failed in a large proportion of Indian calves to produce a
fatal generalized infection, such as almost invariably results in case of European cattle.
Further experiments showed that the same virus when introduced intravenously into
calves caused rapidly fatal generalized tuberculosis even in small doses of 1 mg. A
dose of 3 mg. intravenously is said constantly to produce fatal tuberculosis in European
cattle. Out of 32 head of Indian cattle inoculated, 3 with 1 mg., 3 with 2 mg., 20 with
3 mg., 3 with 5 mg., and 1 each with 10, 15, and 20 mg., only two animals inoculated
with 3 mg. each have upto the time of writing (June 1928) survived for over 3 months.
All the rest have died of acute generalized tuberculosis, the majority within a few
weeks, indicating that the resistance displayed after subcutaneous inoculation is not very
evident when the bacilli are introduced intravenously.
A visit was paid by Dr. Soparkar to the Saharanpur Remount Depot to examine
some cattle there that were said to be in a bad condition. Out of 40 animals, only 20
were available for examination on his arrival, the rest having been previously destroyed.
The animals were subjected to a double intradermal tuberculin test with both ordinary
and avian tuberculin and out of this number 8 or 40 per cent. reacted to ordinary tuber-
culin, 2 gave a suspicious reaction, 5 reacted to avian tuberculin, and 5 were negative.
All the animals were destroyed and subjected to a careful post-mortem examination
for evidence of tuberculosis and Johne's disease. In no case was a definite evidence of
Johne's disease detected. In one case extensive tuberculosis of the lungs and the mesen-
teric glands was detected and smaller and more localized lesions with demonstrable tu-
bercle bacilli were detected in four other animals, one of which had given a negative reac-
tion. Four strains were isolated from these animals and all of these on investigation
were found to be of the bovine type including the one isolated from an animal that had
given a positive reaction with avian tuberculin.
Tuberculin test. A number of presumably healthy cattle were subjected to the-
subcutaneous tuberculin test with a view to testing its reliability when applied to indi-
genous cattle. Sixty-seven animals were tested by this method, out of which 17 or nearly
25 per cent. were found to give a positive reaction, as judged by the standard recom-
mended by the International Veterinary Congress held at Budapest; 22 or nearly 33 per
cent. gave a suspicious reaction and 28 were negative. Forty-two animals including
all the positive and suspicious reactors were destroyed and subjected to a careful post-
mortem examination for evidence of tuberculosis and animal inoculations were made
from material from suspicious lesions for further confirmatory tests. Of these, 5 animals
from the group giving a positive reaction, five from the group giving a suspicious reac-
tion and one out of 3 giving a negative reaction showed definite evidence of tuberculosis
in some of the lymphatic glands and ten strains were isolated from these animals. The
percentage of definitely infected animals found among presumably healthy cattle—11
out of 67 or 16.4 per cent.—closely corresponds with the incidence of this disease among