Abstract
Through the cooperation of Dr. F. Park Lewis of Buffalo, N. Y., I have had opportunity to study the bacteriology of periodic ophthalmia in horses. This disease is said to be the greatest single menace to the horse industry, the world over.
By means of animal inoculation or cultural methods, an organism having specific affinity for the eye has been isolated from the lacrimal sac in 19 of 40 cultures made in 16 affected animals. It has been isolated at least once in 12 of the affected animals, twice in 4 and 3 times in two. The inflammation of the eyes of the 4 animals that yielded negative results had either entirely disappeared or was receding at the time the swabbings were made. It has been isolated from the lacrimal sac in only 2 of 28 normal horses of the herd affected and in no instance of 23 horses cultured remote from the outbreak. It has been isolated from the mucous membrane of the nose in 2 of 6 affected animals, from a sample of water containing yellowish pieces of scum or moss from the shaded side of the tub outdoors, to which the herd had access, and from the water contained in a tub within the stable supplying the drinking water for 10 of the affected animals. Similar cultures from 13 samples of water obtained from brooks, pools, hoof prints, and wagon tracks in the pasture failed to yield the bacillus in a single instance. It was isolated from one specimen of the oats and pea hay which was fed last winter when the epidemic began. It was not obtained in cultures from the feces of 3 nor from the winter coat of hair of one of the affected animals.
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