This investigation had two objectives: (a) to determine the relative susceptibility of several animal species to L. pomona infection and (b) to study the immunological reactivity of guinea pigs and calves to killed suspensions of the organism and fractions thereof. An examination was also made into some of the methods presently used to detect infection or immunity. The relative susceptibility of several animal species to L. pomona infection was compared with that of guinea pigs. Therefore it was first necessary to assay the infectivity of the organism in this species. Bacterial counts were made of young leptospiral culture which was then diluted to provide appropriate dose levels. Sixty guinea pigs in groups of four animals each were injected with infective material ranging down from 100,000 to 13 organisms per inoculum. The level of 50 leptospirae per inoculum was selected as the guinea pig infective dose since it was the lowest in which all animals in the group became infected and showed a regular response. The larger doses of leptospirae did not produce more severe disease as judged by the temperature response. In fact, disease appeared to be less severe at the higher dose but occurred sooner after exposure. Ultimate agglutination-lysis titres not affected by the number of organisms in the infective dose. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/10972 |
| Date | January 1962 |
| Creators | Robertson, Alexander. |
| Publisher | University of Ottawa (Canada) |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 141 p. |
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