Further experiments on the golden hamster (Cricetus auratus) with tubercle bacilli and the vole strain of acid-fast bacillus (Wells)

Abstract

Subcutaneous inoculations: Two strains of human origin were tested, one was of eugonic human type from the sputum of an English case of pulmonary tuberculosis; the other was of dysgonic human type obtained by Dr J. A. Young from a native in Nigeria. Both strains produced typical general tuberculosis in the hamster, the lesions on the whole showing less caseation than those set up by bovine bacilli (vide 1939).The vole strain of bacillus gave rise to generalized disease resembling tuberculosis. The duration of life of the animal was, however, prolonged and though the bacilli were abundant in the lesions there was no necrosis or caseation. Similar results in two hamsters were reported in 1939.The avian bacillus was the least pathogenic of the four types. Of the three hamsters inoculated only one (H. 17, dose 5·0 mg.) showed macroscopic foci in the liver and spleen; as these were not seen microscopically in sections it is doubtful if they were due to the action of tubercle bacilli. It is unfortunate that the specimens of Hamster 17, which died in my absence from the laboratory, were badly fixed; a smear preparation of the spleen was not made. In the others tubercle bacilli were found in the organs, but were not numerous. The peculiar result after 5·0 mg. of avian bacilli—enormous multiplication of bacilli in spleen, liver and a local gland without macroscopic tuberculous lesions—described in the first paper was not reproduced.Feeding: The four different types of bacilli were given by the mouth to six hamsters, the dose in each instance being 10 mg. of culture. Two of the hamsters, one fed with a potato culture of the vole strain, the other with a human strain, escaped infection. The remaining four hamsters, each fed with one of the four types of bacilli, developed disease, the severity of which in each instance was in harmony with that following subcutaneous inoculation of the type.