GOAT TISSUE VACCINE FOR CONTROL OF OUTBREAKS OF RINDERPEST 79

occurred. Twenty animals were selected for this test, 16 cattle and 4 buffaloes.
The animal from which the virus was taken died of rinderpest.

All the animals immunised in this herd were allowed to mix freely with diseased
ones and no case of post-inoculation infection occurred.

The theoretical danger of animals contracting the disease during the negative
phase, appears to us to be negligible. In our experience cases of sickness after
injection have been genuine reactions to the inoculation or animals inoculated
during the incubation period of the disease. In our opinion the small quantity of
attenuated vaccine injected has not had any definite influence on the course of the
disease in these cases.

         PREPARATION OF THE VACCINE FOR USE IN THE FIELD.

The ampoules sent out contain approximately 1 gram of spleen tissue in each.
This is prepared by removing the tissue and placing it in a glass mortar and emulsify-
ing with 0.75 saline solution. The saline is added gradually and decanted at intervals
until 100 c.c. have been used and the tissue thoroughly emulsified. This process
takes fully half an hour and at the end there should be only small particles of fibrous
tissue remaining in the mortar. We use an enamelled mug with a lid to contain the
emulsion to protect it from sunlight and dust. Small quantities are decanted into
a Petri dish for inoculation as required. The emulsion must be used on the day it is
prepared and be protected from excessive heat and sunlight.

In conclusion we wish to refer briefly to the work on goat virus done by Dr. J.
T. Edwards while at Muktesar. In the first instance the passage of bull virus
through goats was carried out with the object of removing piroplasms. After a
series of about 30 passages he discovered that it had acquired a very definite degree
of attenuation also. In view of this he hoped to work out a satisfactory vaccine
for use against rinderpest in place of serum alone and Serum Simultaneous methods
of inoculation. Mr Haddow continued the investigation work and evolved the
spleen tissue vaccine under report. From the results now published it seems that
this goat spleen vaccine fulfills the hopes of both investigators to a very great
extent. It is realised that the tissue vaccine has only been applied to plains animals
in Bengal and that it must be tentatively applied to other breeds in other provinces,
but from the known results of the work with goat blood virus in other provinces,
notably in the Central Provinces and Mysore, there is every reason to expect results
similar to those in Bengal. Should this be the case, the application of goat tissue
vaccine alone will revolutionise the methods of control of rinderpest in India.

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