ANIMAL PRODUCTION AND HEALTH PAPER VOL.33 | |
Haemorrhagic septicaemia | |
Pasteurellosis of
cattle was first described in 1878 by Bollinger in Germany and the causative agent was
isolated by Kitt in 1885. This period also saw the discovery of the microorganisms causing
fowl cholera (Pacteur 1880) rabbit septicaemia (Gaffky 1881) and swine plague (Loeffler
1886). A German pathologist, Ruappe, noting similarities in theme diseases and in the
causative organisms, proposed for them respectively the collective names of haemorrhagic
septicaemia and Bacillus septipaemiae haemorrhagicae. The disease of buffaloes, barbone,
described in Italy by Oreate and Armanni, was added to the list in 1887. In 1896, Kmae
introduced the binomial Baoillus bovispotlous and in 1900 Ligniers described the whole
group more fully than hitherto and used the generic name Pastourella which had been
suggested in 1887 by Trevisan, The specific name Bacterium multocidum (Lehown and Neumann)
did not appear in regular binomial form until 1899, so that some points of priorities in
nomenolature still have to be defined. Rosenbusch and Merchant's (1937) name Pasteurella
multocida has found wide usage. Currently the whole question of nomenclature and
classification is being revised by a committee of the International Congress for
Microbiology. After the influential writings of Ligniers (around 1900), the terms pasteurelloBis and haemorrhagic septicaemia tended to become synonymous. Nevertheless, it noon became clear that many infections with pasteurellas did not produce haemorrhagic septicaemia, and, conversely that many cases of haemorrhagic septicaemia in the pathological sense, were not caused by pasteurellas. This brought the term into disrepute, particularly in North America, where it had been extended to include shipping fever, a disease of complex and perhaps variable etiology. In tropical Asia and Africa haemorrhagic septicaemia (HS) denotes an acute infection, mostly of cattle and buffaloes, with high mortality in clinical cases which is uniformly caused by types 6B or 6E Pasteurella multocida. The disease can be defined in terms of the causative agent, so haemorrhagic septicaemia is a particular kind of pasteurellosis just as typhoid is a particular kind of salmonellosis. Apart from the pasteurellas, no other specific pathogen has been found in cases of haemorrhagic septioaemia. Pactors such as stress and minor infections have been postulated as precipitating causes. The disease in the field is adequately controlled by vaccines directed solely against the appropriate pasteurella and clinical cases, if treated in time, may be cured by chemotherapy aimed at this organism. If any other primary pathogen did exist it would need to have the same or wider geographical distribution as the pasteurella. The concept that haemorrhagic septicaemia in a specific kind of pasteurellosis was foreshadowed by Roberts (1947) and Ochi (1952) with more definite proof being adduced by Bain (1954)t Hudson(l954) and Dhanda, (1959). Much useful work on the disease and its prevention in India was done by Majors J.D.B. Holmes and F.S.H. Baldrey in the first decade of this century and their papers are worth consulting. Reviews on haemorrhagic septicaemia in more recent times are those by Vittoz (1952), Bain (1957, 1961); on pasteurellosis in general by Hudson (1959), Carter and Bain (1960) and Carter (1967). Reports of conferences on haemorrhagic septicaemia have been published by FAO (Report 19609 1962 and 1979). |
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