Studies on the Etiology of Rabbit Pox

Abstract

In the first paper of this series (1) the experimental transmission of rabbit pox from spontaneous cases of the disease and the pathogenic properties of the causative agent, a filterable virus, were reported. The clinical characteristics of the experimentally induced disease which were described in the second paper (2) were found to be indistinguishable from cases of spontaneous pox.The work on experimental pox included experiments on the immunological aspects of the reaction to the infection, in which connection comparisons with other filterable viruses were made. The experiments which dealt with the inoculation of recovered (immune) rabbits are reported in this paper. In this study the viruses of pox, vaccinia, virus III disease, and infectious myxoma of rabbits were used in various combinations. The results on the exposure of recovered rabbits to clinical cases of pox are also presented, the original infections in these cases being pox, vaccinia, or virus III disease. And finally, the results on the cutaneous reaction of a calf to inoculation with pox, dermovaccine, culture (dermo) vaccine, and neurovaccine are also included. The following paper contains the results of serum-virus neutralization experiments (3). Materials and MethodsRabbit Pox Virus.--Tissue emulsions were prepared from the testicles of rabbits with an acute pox orchitis. The animals for the most part belonged to the 353