Report of the Departmental Committee apointed to inquire as to precautions for preventing danger of infection from anthrax in the manipulation of wool, goat hair, and camel hair.

  • Great Britain. Committee on Anthrax.
Date:
1918
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Departmental Committee apointed to inquire as to precautions for preventing danger of infection from anthrax in the manipulation of wool, goat hair, and camel hair. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    8 Report oN THE Conrro. Tests. Dr. Eastwood reported as follows on his control tests in connection with the investigation :— | Report ON THE DIsINFECTION OF HorSEHAIR AT BrapForp. By A. Eastwood, M.D: I received from Mr. Duckering, for examination at the Pathological Laboratory of the Local Government Board, a portion of the artificially infected hair, prior to disinfection, and one half of each of the 13 samples which had been disinfected. : On 26th April a few bits of hair from the material prepared for the experiments were emulsified in normal saline, and the washings, after heating at 80° C. for one hour were cultured and inoculated subcutaneously into a guinea pig. The culture gave a profuse growth of anthrax, ‘The animal died in two days with typical anthrax. This shows that the test material contained abundant anthrax spores of high resistance. The work on the Bradford experiments of Ist, 6th, and 13th May was commenced in the Board’s laboratory on 5th, 12th, and 14th May respectively. MareriaL Usep. * The whole of specimens 1-3, 5-7, 9-11 was used. Matted or tangled portions were selected from 4, 8, and 12, the bulk of material used in each case being about equal to the largest of the previous samples. About the same amount was taken from 13, bits being cut from different parts of the tail. METHOD. The hair was rubbed up in a mortar with 0°5 per cent. ammonia in normal saline. and the turbid liquid poured off; this process was repeated twice with fresh quantities of ammonia in saline. The three washings were put together, neutralised, distributed into four tubes, and centrifugalised. The clear supernatant liquid was poured off and a convenient quantity of normal saline was added to the deposit. One of the four tubes was’ shaken u and again centrifugalised ; the clear fluid was removed and fresh saline was added to.the deposit. After shaking up this tube, about a quarter of its contents was plated, three. agar plates being used. The remaining contents of this tube and the whole of the three other tubes were inoculated subcutaneously into the animals specified in the protocol below. : CuLturRE RESULTS. Many of the plates were sterile, and none showed more than a few colonies. There was no growth of anthrax. The colonies found were no doubt attributable to slight air-borne contamination subsequent to disinfection. Resurts or ANIMAL EXPERIMENTS. No. of - ; : Sappie Animals Inoculated. Duration of Experiment. Condition of Animals at Autopsy. LaCie - |tK., 7 days - | Normal. Gabe ae Mouse 1 GP. 4 GPs G.P. 6 Mouse 2 3 G.P. 7 GP Sie = GP See Mouse 3 - 4 GP210 = G.P. 11 --- Gade iy Mouse 4 - 5 3 et es Pee G:Pe ila) bo ee ta es G.P. 15 Mouse 5 6 G.P. 16 G.P. 17 G.P. 18 Mouse 6 ~~ Cee oe Oe Ss Ce Oe ih. 8 te 6) 8 et ee Ue eho Ree ee Oe tek. ts GN ah Cee et to al kT Se a8 CO) Sie ae Bet ere OL sg 4 be 48 ok Ob Ree OO Be Sten c esine Soe ee 8 a ue eg PE ce cet pm eo ee ee tee eee ek Ree De es ae eek AS be te ' i] ' , 8 ’ ls 5 ere ’ ’ ‘ , ) ‘ ‘ ' ' ’ . ‘ : , 9 * G.P. = Guinea Pig. T K. = Killed,