Abstract
As the result of a recent study of the relationship existing between the virus of epithelioma contagiosum and the vaccine virus, the author concludes that while the vaccine virus is definitely pathogenic for the fowl, the epithelioma contagiosum virus is only mildly pathogenic for the rabbit. The lesions which the vaccine virus evokes in the fowl are characteristic of vaccinia, while those which the epithelioma contagiosum virus produces in the rabbit, are not specific. While the vaccine virus will give rise to the formation of typical Guarnieri bodies both in the skin and in the cornea of the inoculated fowl, the epithelioma contagiosum virus produces no Bollinger bodies in either the skin or the cornea of the inoculated rabbit. It is especially noteworthy that the fowl's skin and cornea are capable of producing both Guarnieri and Bollinger bodies and that they respond to the introduction of the two viruses in question in a perfectly specific manner.
Fowls develop a definite and specific immunity to both the virus of epithelioma contagiosum and to the vaccine virus, but a preliminary infection with either does not protect against a subsequent infection with the other. A preliminary inoculation of the rabbit with the epithelioma contagiosum virus will similarly not protect the animal against a subsequent infection with the vaccine virus, and a previous infection with the vaccine virus is without effect against the slight response which the rabbit may normally offer to the epithelioma virus.
The author's results support the claims of Loewenthal and his coworkers 1 regarding the lack of identity or even of a close relationship between the vaccine virus and the virus of epithelioma contctgiosulm, and stand in opposition to those of Van Heelsbergen 2 and Toyoda. 3
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