RABBIT POX : REPORT OF AN EPIDEMIC

Observations on an epidemic of rabbit pox occurring in an isolated animal room during the winter of 1933–34 are reported. The clinical manifestations, consisting of a generalized papular eruption involving the skin and mucous membranes, together with blepharitis, ophthalmia, nasal discharge and lymphadenopathy were essentially similar to those noted in a pox epidemic of the previous year. This was true in general also of the pathological findings except that vacuolization, local necrosis and vesicle formation were seen in the epidermis, while in the previous year the microscopic pathology in the skin was confined to the corium. Evidence was presented indicating that the infection can be transmitted through the medium of a personal carrier, and that transmission in this manner can occur during the incubation period or before a definite diagnosis is possible. The findings also demonstrated that the etiological agents responsible for the disease reported here and that of the previous year were immunologically related, and that the immunity in recovered animals effectively persisted during the entire period for which data are available, 9 to 12 months. It appeared also that young animals suckling an immune doe were more refractory to the development of the lesions of rabbit pox than were the young of susceptible does.