SERUM RESEARCH IN AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23360, 20 June 1941, Page 2

SERUM RESEARCH IN AUSTRALIA

BIG SUPPLIES FOR WAR

RESEARCH STAFF OF 300 MEMBERS

Since the outbreak of war, Australia’s serum laboratories at Melbourne have been working at pressure in supEng serums, vaccines and other biocal products for the fighting services and civilian community, They now manufacture almost the whole range of useful biological products. A Commonwealth Department of Information bulletin, released in New Zealand 'by the Australian Trade Commissioner, says that the Australia,n Government laboratories are now relieving Britain of the task of vaccine supply to other British countries bordering the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

The serum laboratories were established in the early days of World War No. 1 to meet an emergency caused by the cessation of supplies of serum and vaccines from overseas. A staff of about 300, consisting of graduates of human and veterinary medicine,. specially trained in bacteriology and pathology, and highly-skilled biochemists, physicists, and botanists, is now conducting brilliant research into every relevant aspect of bacteriology and immunology. The livestock population of the. laboratories totals many thousands oit guinea pigs, rabbits, mice, rats, horses, i cattle, sheep, dogs, donkeys, and bandicoots. ' ■; [Growth of Department '■■' The' pepartment responsible for the ment of diabetics has steadily grown, and the'amount of insulin'now being regularly issued is very ’large. Commonwealth pituitary extract is now well established among the practising profession as a sound therapeutic agent, and supplies of the Commonwealth subsidiary'standard of pituitary are regularly, rehpwed and.checked against the'-ialtMnatltjina] stahddrd. Thyroid tabletsjare produced andAstartdardised in term® of thyroxine iodine’in aecordancf with the recommendations of the British Pharmacopoeia, ■ : Although the local demand for Jenperian’ calf lymph for vaccination against smallpox;is not great, adequate S’esare constantly maintained in a y available form to meet any possible epidemic emergency. The vaccine department of the laboratories .iroducfis a wide range of vaccines for prevention or treatment of such diseases as -cholera and plague, dysentery, - gonorrhoea. influence, whooping cough, typhoid fever and coryza, and the ' streptococcal and stpphylococcal infections. -.Separate departments produce diphtheria and tetanus toxins and also toXoids. The latter are used for the prevention of these diseases in human beings and animals respectively. A special anaerpbic department prepares toxin for the production of gas gangrene antl-toxln and other sera. Treatment of Snakebite Anti-venenes for the treatment of snakebite of the Australian venomous snakes have been the subject of intensive investigation for the last 10 years, and anti-venene Is ■ now available for the most poisonous of the Australian snakes.

A large range of tuberculins is prepared by a special department from human and bovine strains of M. tuberculosis for the diagnosis of tuberculosis in human beings and animals. Other preparations from similar organisms are also available.

In the allergen department , a very large number of special extracts for testing and treatment of hay fever and asthma are prepared. These are derived from such diverse sources as grass and other plant pollens, animal hair, dandruff, many foods and miscellaneous substances like house dust, orris root, insect bodies, etc, : , The media department supplies several hundred different types of bacteriological medium far. use by bacteriologists within the serum laboratories ana in the special departments of hospitals and other institutions throughout Australia. Another special department prepares various agents for the diagnosis of disease as used in the practice of' human and veterinary medicine* by pathological departments of hospitals, etc.