A Comparison of the Virulence in Guinea-pigs of South Indian and British Tubercle Bacilli

Mitchison, D A and Wallace, J G and Bhatia, A L and Selkon , J B and Subbaiah, T V and Lancaster, M C (1960) A Comparison of the Virulence in Guinea-pigs of South Indian and British Tubercle Bacilli. Tubercle, 41 (1). pp. 1-22. ISSN 0041-3879

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Abstract

Dhayagude and Shah (I948) carried out virulence tests in guinea-pigs on 24 cultures of tubercle bacilli obtained from Indian patients, and found that some caused generalized tuberculosis whereas others caused only local and glandular lesions. Frimodt- Møller, Mathew and Barton (1956) reported that, of 29 cultures from 20 untreated Indian patients and g other Indian patients with drug sensitive organisms, 10 produced involvement of not more than the omentum and hepatic node when guineapigs were inoculated in graded doses of from I O-3 to I O-6 mg. bacilli by the intraperitoneal route and were killed four and eight weeks later. They suggested that a proportion of Indian cultures of tubercle bacilli were considerably less virulent than European strains. However, when our investigation was started, this conclusion was in doubt for the following reasons. As cultures of known high virulence were not included in their experiments, the apparent, attenuation of the Indian organisms could have been caused by a lowered susceptibility to tuberculosis of the guinea-pigs employed, or by questions of technique. It is possible that guinea-pigs bred for long periods in India and exposed to different environmental conditions and diet from those in the Western hemisphere might differ in their susceptibility to tuberculosis. Indian cattle have a natural increased resistance to tuberculosis as compared to English cattle (Soparkar, I925). Secondly, atypical mycobacteria may well be more prevalent in tropical than in temperate countries (Palmer, 1953; World Health Organization Tuberculosis Research Office, 1955) and it is possible that a portion of the strains studied were not tubercle bacilli, as no tests were reported to prove their true identity.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	Tuberculosis > Clinical Research
Divisions:	Clinical Research
Depositing User:	Dr. Rathinasabapati R
Date Deposited:	12 Jul 2013 10:43
Last Modified:	23 Feb 2016 10:38
URI:	http://eprints.nirt.res.in/id/eprint/17

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