Haemorrhagic septicaemia

Abstract

Pasteurellosis of cattle was first described in 1878 by Bollinger in Germany and the causative agent was isolated by Kitt in 1885. This period also saw the discovery of the microorganisms causing fowl cholera (Pacteur 1880) rabbit septicaemia (Gaffky 1881) and swine plague (Loeffler 1886). A German pathologist, Ruappe, noting similarities in theme diseases and in the causative organisms, proposed for them respectively the collective names of haemorrhagic septicaemia and Bacillus septipaemiae hae morrhagicae. The disease of buffaloes, barbone, described in Italy by Oreate and Armanni, was added to the list in 1887. In 1896, Kmae introduced the binomial Baoillus bovispotlous and in 1900 Ligniers described the whole group more fully than hitherto and used the generic name Pastourella which had been suggested in 1887 by Trevisan, The specific name Bacterium multocidum (Lehown and Neumann) did not appear in regular binomial form until 1899, so that some points of priorities in nomenolature s till have to be defined. Rosenbusch and Merchant's (1937) name Pasteurella multocida has found wide usage. Currently the whole question of nomenclature and classification is being revised by a committee of the International Congress for Microbiology. After the influential writings of Ligniers (around 1900), the terms pasteurelloBis and haemorrhagic septicaemia tended to become synonymous. Nevertheless, it noon became clear that many infections with pasteurellas did not produce haemorrhagic sep ticaemia, and, conversely that many cases of haemorrhagic septicaemia in the pathological sense, were not caused by pasteurellas. This brought the term into disrepute, particularly in North America, where it had been extended to include shipping fever, a disease of complex and perhaps variable etiology. In tropical Asia and Africa haemorrhagic septicaemia (HS) denotes an acute infection, mostly of cattle and buffaloes, with high mortality in clinical cases which is uniformly caused by types 6B o r 6E Pasteurella multocida. The disease can be defined in terms of the causative agent, so haemorrhagic septicaemia is a particular kind of pasteurellosis just as typhoid is a particular kind of salmonellosis. Apart from the pasteurellas, no other specific pathogen has been found in cases of haemorrhagic septioaemia. Pactors such as stress and minor infections have been postulated as precipitating causes. The disease in the field is adequately controlled by vaccines directed solely against the a ppropriate pasteurella and clinical cases, if treated in time, may be cured by chemotherapy aimed at this organism. If any other primary pathogen did exist it would need to have the same or wider geographical distribution as the pasteurella.