BACTERIOLOGICAL DIAGNOSIS OF ANTHRAX.
Abstract
Anthrax bacilli were identified by a complex of signs: Morphology of colonies and bacilli, spore-formation and capsuleformation in the animal organism, the absence of motility, the character of growth on gelatine, the absence of hemolysis, pathogenicity for guinea pigs, positive precipitation reaction after Ascoli. Bead test, fluorescence microscopy and the test with a specific phage facilitate considerably the diagnosis. All the anthrax strains isolated from human beings possessed a high virulence for albino mice and guinea pigs were typical by the main properties, excluding one strain isolated from a patient after a 4-day penicillin treatment (atypical morphology of colonies). From the anthrax patients treated with antibiotics, it was possible to isolate the causative agent not later than 3 to 4 days from the beginning of treatment. An anthrax culture is described which was isolated from the soil sample of a former cattle burial place; this culture was endowed with altered properties: The absence of capacity to form a capsule in the animals organism, a reduced virulence for guinea pigs and albino mice, a capacity to provoke hemolysis and forming smooth colonies. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 1963
- Accession Number
- AD0601356
Entities
People
- T. N. Ponomareva
Organizations
- United States Army Biological Warfare Laboratories