Cattle Tuberculosis Vaccine

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 44, 22 February 1936, Page 12

Cattle Tuberculosis Vaccine

Spahlmger's Serum Successful

Remarkable Result in Northern Ireland

Some weeks ago, cables from Britain gave word that remarkable results had been announced by the Ministry of Agriculture of Northern Ireland, from experiments testing Spahlingcr’s anti-tuberculosis serum for cattle. Fortunately, tuberculosis is not such a cattle scourge in this Dominion as it is in Britain and other northern lands, whero cattle havo to bo housed in winter. Even so, it causes the loss of tens of thousands of pounds per annum, especially to dairy farmers. There is, too, the health of human beings to bo considered. The value of milk and milk products, utterly free of tuberculosis, would be difficult to assess. Herewith are published some comments upon the North of Ireland tests and some details of the nature of those tests. Their extreme severity indicates the couiidcnce Spahlinger had in his serum.

Some Comments. “Tiie report is so conclusive that it will be nothing less than a crime it' this method of ensuring a non-tuberculosis milk supply is not enforced throughout the world. “It has been provod that a very large amount of milk entering our cities and towns contains living tubercle bacilli. Even milk from T.T. herds is not always free from the living organism. “Raw milk will only be safe when our herds have been protected. It will then be a better food than any milk which has been treated by heat. “I hope that this latest report will convince the most prejudiced folk as I to the value of Henry SpahlingcrV work. It is certainly a vindication of those who have expressed their faith in Spahlingcr. It is to be hoped that now ho has provod that a dead vaccine will protect cattle against such massive doses of infection, a vaccine will be prepared to render human infants ini--murto from this terrible scourge. “Living vaccines have proved dangerous in the past, and it can no longer bo denied that a dead vaccine will protect.”—Sir Bruce Bruce-l’orler, O.M.U. “It is impossible at this stage to enter into a detailed criticism, but the report puts forward no pretentious claims, and one must agree with the conclusion that the new vaccine appears to have conferred a marked degree of resistance against the intravenous test dose.

“The test dose was a severe one, and on the evidence presented in the report which must be regarded as being of an interim nature, 1 think one would be justified in saying that further experiments certainly seem to be indicated, using a vaccine prepared from the formula prescribed by Mr Spahlingcr.” — Professor J. B. Buxton, F.K.C.S., Director of the Institute of Animal Pathology at Cambridge University.

“WHAT MORE CAN I DOV” - Mr Spahlinger Himself I saw Mr Spahlinger in London this week (writes a Farmers’ Week]/ rep resentative) and asked him what his attitude was to the experiments. “.There is no reason why tho British Government, or anyone else, should not test the. vaccine,’’ he replied. “I have published my formula for all the world to see. What more can I do? “As a matter of fact, I believe the Ministry of Agriculture have been conducting some experiments, but exactly what they have been doing I do not know. ’ ’ Mr Spahlinger is convinced that the compulsory use of his vaccine throughout this country would eliminate bovine tuberculosis and render obsolete and unnecessary the Government’s £750,00(1 Attested Herds Scheme. This country, he said, can be cleared of bovine tuberculosis in five to seven years. The time necessary to accomplish tliis depends entirely on the life of the present infected stock. If ail calves arc vaccinated against tuberculosis they will be immunised against the disease, and it will die out with the old cattle. “The report proves conclusively that I am right,’’ he added. “At long last my work is receiving recognition. For years everyone and everything seemed against me. Now, quite suddenly, people have become friendly. It is very strange.” The Ministry of Agriculture for Northern Ireland have now issued a report of the experiment carried out by their Veterinary Division with the object of ascertaining whether Mr Henry Spahlinger’s anti-tuberculosis vaccine could protect cattle from lethal doses of tubercle organisms injected into their .blood stream. Tho experiment began in September, 1931, and lasted for a period of three years. In view of tho widespread in terest among tho public generally, the veterinary officers’ report is presented in two sections. The first sets out in non-tcchnical language for the benelit of the non-professional reader tho general results of the tests. The second section gives a technical report and an appendix containing the results of the detailed post-mortem examinations. This report was written by Dr. S. Scott, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Northern Ireland. Conditions of the Experiment The experiment consisted of thirtytwo calves divided into six experimental groups, but for the purpose of this article only the two main groups need be considered.

Group 3, consisting of eleven animals and vaccinated with Mr Spahlinger’s simplified anti-tubercular bovine vaccine. Group 6, consisting of nine animals—the control group, that is to say, not vaccinated. The calves were from four to sis months old when the experiment started. The majority were the progeny of crossbred Galloway cows sired by an Aberdeen-Angus bull. The dams had not been housed for at least three years and the calves were born and reared in the held and suckled their dahis. The remainder were purchased from Grade A tuberculin-tested herds,, and were also reared out of doors on tho special experimental farm rented by the Ministry, and during the calf-rear-ing period fed on Grade A tuberculintested milk. On December 6, 1931, Mr Spahlinger visited Northern Ireland and vaccinated tho eleven calves in Group 3 rvith his simplified (dead) vaccine which had been prepared in I!)29. All the calves were then from four to six months old.

Since that date Mr Spahlinger has had no personal contact with the experiment. It was Mr Spahliager's wish that the value of his vaceiuc should be tested by injecting into the blood stream of all the animals' a dose of Jiving tubercle orgunisms sufficient to kill an unvacciuated animal in from thirty to forty days. It was the view of the Ministry's veterinary officers that it was exceedingly improbable thai any vaccine could withstand such a drastic test, but as Mr Spahlinger was anxious to the point of insistence that the conditions should be as drastic and convincing as possible, his proposal was ultimately agreed to. A Lethal Test Infection—loo,ooo,ooo Tubercle Bacilli A test dose of living tubercle was prepared by tho Ministry’s veterinaryofficers from seven bovine strains, live obtained from milk, one from a tubercular gland and tho other from a tubercular lung. The virulency or dcadlincss of the dose of living tubercle organisms was tested by injecting into the jugular vein of three calves, one bought specially for tho purpose and two removed from Group 6, the control or uu vaccinated group. These calves died in eighteen, nineteen and twenty day-3 from generalised tuberculosis. As the result of these trials tho test dose of virulent tubercle vacilli was fixed at 2.5 milligrams. A measure of tho amount of infection may be gathered from the fact that the dose contained approximately 100,000,000 tubercle bacilli. On June G, 1052, six mouths after the eleven calves in Group 5 had been vaccinated, this test dose of tubercle bacilli was injected by the Ministry's veterinary officers into the jugular vein of .each of the eleven vaccinated animals in Group 5, and each of the remaining seven animals in Group G—-non-vaccinated—which acted as the control group. Each of these eighteen animals had injected into their jugular vein approximately 100,000,000 living and virulent tubercle bacilli. Effect on Unvaccinated Calves

Group 6 (control group), unvaceinateil calves, which contained at the start nine calves, had been reduced to seven through the removal of tw.o calves which died in IS and 19 days in the trials to standardise the lethal test dose. After the injection of the standard lethal test dose of tubercle organisms into the jugular vein of the remaining seven calves on June 6, 1932, the animals showed considerable variation m temperature until the tenth or eleventh day. At this stage a marked rise in ail their temperatures occurred, and tho animals began to lose condition rapidly, five out of the seven became emaciated and died on the held 25, 29, 34, 52 and 73 days after the injection of the test dose. The average period for the test to produce death was, therefore, 43 days. Post mortem examination of all live animals showed death to be due to acute generalised tuberculosis, every organ of tho body being extensively affected with tho disease. Two of the calves survived the test dose of tubercle organisms. High temperature and loss of condition persisted until the thirty-third day and then approximated to normal and remained so thereafter. During the remainder of their lives these two animals remained in good health and were in fat condition when slaughtered 763 and 379 days after tho injection of the test dose. Post mortem examinations showed tuberculous lesions uf a non-progressive type in both animals. These two animals belong to the small percentage of bovines which possess a natural immunity to tuberculosis. How Vaccinated Calves Fared

The eleven animals in Group 3 (vaccinated calves) all resisted the injection of the test dose in a similar manner. During the first few days their temperatures roso rapidly and there was occasional coughing. By the end of the tenth day their temperatures had returned to normal and the animals continued in good health and thriving condition thereafter. Only one animal m this group died before the conclusion of the experiment. This animal was seriously affected with house in August, 193 a, and two months later symptoms of tuberculous meningitis appeared. The attack of hoose may have lowered its resistance. It lay for some weeks and died from pneumonia 607 days after the injection of the test dose. The remaining ton animals, which were in thriving and fat condition, were slaughtered in the Belfast Municipal Abattoir 7SO and 892 days after the injection of the lethal dose, and a complete jmst mortem examination carried out by the Ministry's veterinary officers in collaboration with the City Veterinarian and Dr. Trimble, the Tuberculosis Officer of Belfast. The carcases of nine of these animals were passed by the City Veterinarian as lit for human consumption. The rejected ariinial was found to have a tuberculous udder, although the carcase generally was in quite good condition. It should be mentioned that this animal developed in August, 1933, a streptococcal mastitis (udder infection) which may have lowered its resistance.

Tlio heifers f iu this group calved six mouths before they were slaughtered, and suckled their calves. It was deemed desirable to put the heifers through the strain of a calving period in order to

submit the vaccine to as drastic a test as possible.. In general, the post-mortem examination showed the presence of hard nodules in the lungs and certain glands. It was not suspected until these hard nodules were cut open that they contained a soft centre composed of a yellow, oily, pus-like substanco or soft, cheese-like material. Injection of this material into guinea pigs showed that living tubercle organisms were present, although they were not found on microscopic examination. In order to appreciate the signilicance of the post-mortem examination it is desirable to explaiu that although approximately one hundred million Jiving tubercle organisms were injected into the blood stream of each animal, there would bo many clumps of organisms of varying sices in the test dose.

The defensive mechanism of the vaeeiuated animals would deal with the larger clumps of tubercle by building round them a coating of caseous or calcareous (lime) material which would exclude the disease from the system. The organisms so localised would die oil in the process of time and only become a possible source of re-infection if the health of the animal became so enfeebled that there was a general breakdown of the tissues.

“High Degree of Immunity” Perhaps the best method of summing up the test is to quote the eonciusious drawn bv the Ministry's veterinary oiiicers themselves:— The vaccinated animals, in addition to the lethal dose of tubercle bacilli injected into their blood streams, were subjected during the two years which followed to intense natural infection. The heifers, moreover, were put through the strain of a calving and lactation period. It must, tnerefore, be concluded in the lignt of the results obtained, that Mr bpaiilmger’s vaccine conferred on the vaccinated animals a high degree of immunity. ft is most unlikely that any similar degree of infection to which the vaccinated animals were subjected would be met with under natural conditions, and it is difficult to resist the conclusion that in this vaccine there exists a means of securing a high degree of immunity to any form of tubercular infection acquired under natural conditions. The highly satisfactory nature of the experiments naturally raises the question as to the extensive or cumpulsory use of the vaccine as a means of eradicating tuberculosis from our cattle. It is clear from the report that vaccinated animals will re-act .to the tuberculin test, and therefore that the widespread or compulsory adoption of vaccination involves the abandonment of the present policy of utilising the tuberculin test as a means of detecting animals suffering from tuberculosis. A further Experiment Before adopting the policy of compulsory vaccination with Mr Spahlin-ger-’s vaccine, the Ministry of Agriculture for Northern Ireland proposes to carry out a further experiment in which vaccinated animals will be submitted to the most intense form of natural infection through the luugs and alimentary canal that can bo devised. The experiment will be devised with the object of determining, among other things, the cpriod for which the immunity conferred by Mr Spahiinger’s vaccine lasts, and the possibility which the experiments that have been reported upon show of in jections of tuberculin destroying or deflecting the immunity conferred by Spahiinger’s vaccine.