Abstract
Since its use for the cultivation of a spirillum of fowls by Levaditi 1 and the fowl-pox virus by Woodruff and Goodpasture, 2 the fertile hen egg has been employed in the cultivation of many viruses. This medium was employed by Cox 3 for the cultivation of Rickettsiae, and has also been utilized in the study of bacteria 4 and protozoa. 5 Morrow, Syverton and their collaborators 6 employed the developing hen egg in the study of Leptospira icterohemorrhagiae, but Bessemans and De Meirsman 7 failed with Treponema pallida. Employing murine-passaged strains, both Oag 8 and Chabaud 9 were successful with Borrelia duttoni.
Owing to the difficulty of cultivating spirochetes of relapsing fever in laboratory media, we have attempted to grow these organisms in the developing hen egg. In this communication we are reporting successful cultivation of Texas relapsing fever spirochetes in this medium with blood from each of four patients. Specimens were received in the routine mail and after Giemsa preparations of the clots were examined, each specimen was divided in two portions. The first portions of the 4 inocula were introduced intraperitoneally in rats without delay, while an additional day of delay was incurred by sterility testing of the second portions prior to the inoculation of fertile eggs. Meanwhile, previously incubated white leghorn eggs were candled and scrubbed clean with warm soap and water.
For the first inoculum 10-day-old eggs were selected and the chorio-allantoic membranes were exposed by means of a modified dental drill, for the window method of study. 2 On each of 8 chorio-allantoic membranes was dropped 0.2 cc of the specimen and the membranes were observed through the window daily for possible changes or lesions.
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