TUBERCULOSIS.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20177, 4 March 1931, Page 6

TUBERCULOSIS.

"B.C.G" VACCINE TESTS. CALVES MADE IMMUNE TO TUBERCULOSIS. Tuberculosis in cattle may one da.y be eliminated from the Empire's herds, if the success of three, years' experiments carried out at Cambridge University, and financed by the Empire Marketing Board, is followed up. These experiments show that the immunisation of calves against bovine tuberculosis with "8.C.G." vaccine is definitely practicable. ! This announcement has been made following the claims recently., put forward that calves had been rendered immune to tuberculosis, by means of a secret vaccifie used by Mr. Spahlinger, on a farm in Norfolk. The Cambridge experiments,,which began in 1927, are being carried out by Professor J. B. Buxton, head of the department of Animal Pathology at the University, and Dr. Stanley Griffith, an officer of the Mpdical Council, with the aid of an Empire Marketing Board grant. Similar tests have been made at the Ministry of Agriculture's laboratories. Alive Three Years Xiater. Many of the calves which were inoculated with B.C.G. vaccine, and subsequently given powerful doses of virile tuberculosis germs injected straight into the veins, were alive eight to twenty months "afterwards. "Control'' calves, which were not given the 8.C.G., but received the same dose of virulent " tubercle germs,died in about three weeks. One animal which was vaccinated as a heifer calf, and then given, a fatal dose of tubercle germs, is 'still alive and well three years afterwards. In the interval, she has had a calf which .does -not react to' the standard- test - for- tuberculosis, and so is free from infection.

"B.C.G" ( vaccine, or Bacillus-Cal-mette-Guerin, is so called ■ because it was first' discovered by a French scientist, Professor Calmette, at the Pasteur Institute in . 1906.' - It consists of a strain of ' Hying, though non-virulent, germs, These. bacilli were bred for thirteen years oq bile-soaked, potatoes, in the laboratories, and at the end. of . this, time tfrey were found'to have loßt their virulence, and to be incapable of : producing in calves-horses, I m ° Bt •jlv ATjrithi ? 8.C.G.,; ; were - alatfgfiitfrefl.. over 1 a -Vaftero „ <: several, intravenous rfejwtio'na..' bi ? :.;|sound %> to • be * tottering only frijp* flight chronic symp-f of - ifcf? -.disease, although similar i\ 1 'i' , 1 ./t jf B.'C.G. Yf&ciiW. does not always 'con- , degree of immunity. ,In r "iome > eaßeß' f tbe" vaccinated' caJvea die tuberculosis ?mej»ing|Ei®(caused .by .of 'tunfe ,t|peve»Sm>ntss •baa oalf''intravenously f 'vaccinated , With, B,fr.GL* failed to show •increased

many-pf the teats the calves ,j ftjtfr 1 infwith fFJB* by the injection if,jQf milUopp, of' lisng germs into the - $' 'TJjis is,-,very much more i jjPWP&a* to ; coa- ; J £ - the gjirms \9y»we»fhijig'or'with their, food.'' Ifris • tqkffi to assume, reritqtire calves partially resistant to tuber:(ip|oi»jat in laboratory tests it would have 'i <'Bi very much greater effect under normal » T positions. y 4 ; % work, 'Professor, £ - are netees' i ,p,0.<2. caw; fee used® com l one knows, for instance, ' iaoVvloig 1 i& J effect*, &st,' and whether s? t wairf{fc«&Ve -to be'sei' 4 t jjtq-fc {, arrets :,to human' / -htiftjfcil. Huro&n beings- aie susceptible 4 Itq% Oftirai\&|' s and - about i 30. t Kbtmee h »s!§ by the boyine germ. *." Musttfrhuman tuberculosis | in "cattle I in 3 the '.v&Ccinaf! profepsoj Cal- • mptts 4xpen : ft ' claims ■'io.jhaye Tedueed- inM f rp» " a tuberculosis I *?!>!* r! }>*" ,

brings into operation his wages reduction ■ proposals, that is, of course, if Parliament sanctions them. Consequent on the slump in Australia exhibits of stock will be seriously curtailed at the. Sydney Royal fellow this year. Only "Aberdeen cattle and Clydesdale horses will be exhibited, at a co;t of between £2OO and £250. 'Usually about £750 is expended by the Government on the show, the entries , including practically all the breeds of cattle. , e 1 Several' causes may be 'attributed to a > experienced by the fescue - growers in Southland, says the f'Southland Times," The Tahiti was carrying; 37 tons of fescue seed when she sank in the Pacific several'months ago,' and' this has left the American ptarket bare of a product which has a fair demand, in,Ahe United States, and ' there has been no carry-oVer at all locally,- • This has 'resulted in buyerß „ being very 'keen to secure supplies of the seed now coming on to the- market, and good prices are being offered for lines of good quality. The crop wVs a good one this season, and a fairly large quantity of. good seed is reported to .have been saved, and the demand is such -that practically all "of it will bo easily ... Buyers for the American nlarkgt' Wquiro to make ship- , meht in March] otherwise; they v *will be unable to catch >the American season. ■ so' any.- weighty lines coming on to the nmrket during the next few weeks will find » ready *alfc- ~ , i f i '<' <