British Industrial Anthrax Part II

Extract

The result of bacteriological research indicates that the material infected is probably not large compared to the total amount used, and that in suspected samples of both hair and bristles anthrax bacilli can be isolated either by inoculation of animals or by plate cultivation.

Difficulties are met with in the inoculation of animals owing to the presence of the bacillus of malignant oedema, which, unless special methods are used as shown by Duncan, will often mask the presence of the anthrax bacillus altogether.

In separation by means of agar plates the presence of bacilli very closely resembling anthrax again leads to error. Three types of these bacilli have been met with in hair and bristles; viz.: Bac. A² or Bac. anthracoides of Bainbridge, possibly the same as Bac. subtilis, the Bac. A¹, and Bac. A. The last two do not exactly correspond with any known bacilli, and so far as we know at present are of little importance, but in view of the experiments of Gilruth showing that guinea-pigs, rabbits, and sheep can resist the inoculation of large doses of virulent anthrax bacilli completely, provided these organisms are mixed with a larger quantity of some other organisms which are non-pathogenic to these animals, and that a small amount of immunity to pure anthrax is conferred, it is certain that the presence of these anthrax-like bacilli, evidently closely related to the anthrax bacillus, cannot but be of benefit; and it is possible that further experiments may show that injections of them mixed with cultures of anthrax bacilli of varied virulence may confer a higher degree of immunity than do mixtures of anthrax with other non-pathogenic bacilli, as shown by Gilruth (1904).