SENSITIVITY OF WILD MICE TO MURINE LEPROSY

Abstract

The 4 species of wild mice (Apodemus speciosus speciosus, Apodemus geisha geisha, Meriones unguiculatus, Microtus montebelli montebelli) shown in Fig. 1-4 were tested for sensitivity to murine leprosy and the results in Table 1-4 were obtained.
Cortisone and hyaluronidase were administered in Meriones unguiculatus, which proved the least sensitive, with the object of heightening infectivity and the results are shown in Table 5. From the results, the following is suggested.
1) The morphological classification of wild mice and sensitivity to murine leprosy appear to coincide closely and Apod. s. s. was most susceptive.
2) In Mer. ung., growth of murine leprosy bacilli takes place only in testicular tissue and inoculation of a small amount of bacilli gives better results than a large amount.
3) Another finding of interest was the production of lesions at joints, that is at location other than the site of inoculation after a long latent period in a case of Micr. m. m. It is suggested that long-term diligent observation is required for the determination of sensitivity.
4) It is difficult to alter natural sensitivity or resistence so when animals are to be experimentally infected with the human leprosy bacilli, animals which are sensitive should first be found.