An Outbreak of an Aberrant Type of Rinderpest in Tanganyika Territory

Abstract

Summary Virus of an outbreak of a disease simulating very mild rinderpest was recovered from a lymphatic gland of an affected calf. It caused a reaction in an ox when it was passaged by blood inoculation through a further series of oxen. The virus evoked a thermal reaction similar to that of rinderpest. The symptoms shown by the affected animals were not strictly constant, but the general picture of the disease was as follows. The incubation period varied from four to seven days and the duration of the thermal reaction from three to nine days. There was general dullness during and shortly after the reaction and a nasal discharge of a serous nature, becoming purulent in some cases. Conjunctivitis, erythema of the gums and fraenum linguae and ulceration of the gums, fraenum linguae, buccal papillae, mucosa of the tongue, lips and occasionally the muzzle occurred in several affected animals. There was a little diarrhoea, but it was never severe. As a result of serial passages, there was a tendency towards a shortening of the incubation period and a slight increase in the general severity of the disease, although after eight passages the infection never became what might be described as a “killing” disease. All the cattle which reacted to the virus were subsequently immune to rinderpest. Filtered blood after vigorous agitation was infective, while blood filtered without agitation failed to infect. The virus appeared to be unduly fragile. The apparent exacerbation of a latent T. theileri infection in one case by the virus is described.