Control of yeast contamination by mycostatin in cultures of the virus of foot-and-mouth disease.

Abstract

CULTURE of the virus of foot-and-mouth disease by Frenkel's method1, in which the epithelial tissue of the cattle tongue is used, is being widely adopted for the provision of virus for vaccine production. The tongue epithelium is grossly contaminated with bacteria and yeasts, and antibiotics must be included in the culture medium for their suppression. The bacterial contamination that we have encountered has been effectively controlled by penicillin and streptomycin; but the problem of inhibiting the growth of yeasts remained. During December 1954–March 1955, fourteen apparently distinct strains of yeasts have been isolated from virus cultures in which the tongue tissue was from cattle slaughtered in London. An attempt is being made to identify these strains using the classification of Lodder and Kreger - van Rij2. This has led, so far, to recognition of species from the genera Endomycopsis, Saccharomyces, Sporobolomyces, Candida, Kloeckera, Trichosporon and Rhodotorula.