ON THE SUCCESSFUL TRANSMISSION OF VARIOLA IN
                 GOATS IN A GENERALIZED FORM*

                                             BY

                    S. GANAPATHY IYER, G.M.V.C.

             Imperial Veterinary Research Institute, Mukteswar

                  (Received for publication on 10th February 1939)

                                (With Plate XXXI)

IN Variola, the reproduction of the disease artificially for either diag-
nostic work or for conferring active immunity in animals threatened with
contact infection, is mostly achieved by localizing the infection on the skin
in some part of the body. It is seldom that generalized eruptions occur
following intracutaneous inoculation. Under field conditions, Variola in
goats is characterized by different forms. When kids are the victims, the
classical lesions of pox are not always observed, and the skin lesions in a
desiccated form or suspended in 50 per cent glycerinated saline solution are
the usual biological materials needed for a satisfactory diagnosis. Two
forms of goat-pox are likely to occur. One form is the mild and localized
one believed to be the result of infection with cow-pox. The natural trans-
mission of sheep-pox to goats is alleged to cause a very severe form of pox in
goats.

At the Imperial Veterinary Research Institute, Mukteswar, from an
examination of various specimens of goat-pox materials, there is some indi-
cation that there may exist several strains of goat-pox virus. Hutyra and
Marek [1926] state that the identity of the goat-pox virus is still an unsettled
problem.

Records of having transmitted pox in goats in a generalized form ex-
perimentally using such biological materials as blood and other internal
organs are not many and in India similar attempts have seldom been made.
This paper records the successful reproduction of experimental goat-pox
lesions in goats in a generalized form following the subcutaneous injection of
materials such as blood taken at the height of thermal reaction and spleen
after death.

                          TRANSMISSION EXPERIMENTS

In the first instance a specimen of defibrinated blood from the jugular
vein of a goat, referred to as one of an outbreak of disease in goats in the
Bombay Province, was subinoculated into two healthy goats and kept in
an isolated chupper, for observation. The true syndrome of Variola was
reproduced. The vesiculo-pustular lesions were in abundance on the under
surface of the abdomen and the inner side of the thighs.

               * Paper read at the Indian Science Congress, 1939

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