In the fall of 1956, the authors happened to recognize the occurrence of minute nodules in the livers of the mice, which were borne in their colonies. The incidence continued sporadically, until they had been able to diagnose it as the “Tyzzer's disease” in October 1958. It was presumed that the source of the contamination could already exist when the breeding of their colonies was started in 1952.
The autopsy of the infected mice revealed no significant differences in either the strains and sexes of the animal or seasonal prevalences of the disease.
Experimental infection of the mice by oral route employing the material derived from infected liver was not successful. However the intravenous inoculation accompanied with subcutaneous administration of cortisone, or the intracerebral inoculation were able to infect the mice consistently, so that the serial passage of the agent has been carried out by either route.
Histopathological changess of the infected liver and the stability of the agent in the emulsion of the infected liver were studied using both routes of inoculation.
Aureomycin, suspended and given orally in the water to the mice appeared to be somewhat effective for the prevention of the experimental infection. Among several sorts of the vaccine, prepared from the infected mouse liver, only the formalinized-concentrated one was slightly effective to protect the animal from death though it could not prevent the pathologic changes in the liver.
The detection of the potentially infected parents by the autopsy of their litters was proven to be the useful device rather than sacrificing the parents from practical point of view. Subsequently, this method was employed for the evaluation of the prophylactic effects of kureomycin and or vaccine upon the incidence of the disease among the colonies of the mice. No meaningful difference was noted between control and recipients. Eventually, the disease was completely diminished by the effort directed toward the careful detection and the successive isolation of the infected parents.
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