Experimental Inoculation of Man and Guinea Pigs with the Virus of Cattle Warts.

Abstract

The etiological agent of human verrucae has been established as a filterable virus by a number of investigators. This was suggested first by Ciuffo 1 and firmly established by Wile and Kingery 2 and by Kingery. 3 Schultz 4 reported that he had succeeded in transmitting cattle warts to man but the filterable nature of the cattle wart virus was not proven until the work of Creech. 5 Creech succeeded in producing experimental wart lesions in 15 out of 22 calves with both filtered and unfiltered cattle wart material.

It is becoming more and more apparent that there are many similar diseases to be found in the different species. Studies should be directed towards the discovery of common etiological agents in many of these conditions. The so-called pox diseases of man and animals represent good examples which suggest common or at least closely related etiological factors. Information concerning the relationship of these agents is particularly valuable.

We have attempted to determine a possible relationship between the virus of cattle warts and of the common wart in man. Usually 4 or 5 cattle warts have been excised, brought to the laboratory, washed and placed in 50% glycerin in the ice box for several hours. These warts were then cut up in fine particles with sterile instruments and ground up in sterile test glasses with sand. After emulsifying with saline part of the emulsion was filtered through Berkefeld N filters. Human subjects and guinea pigs were inoculated intracutaneously with the wart emulsions.

One of us (McK) had demonstrated that unfiltered cattle wart emulsion gave rise in guinea pigs to new growths of the proliferating type characteristic of verruca. The experimental lesions were not so marked with the filtered material although mild lesions were produced.