Comparison of the toxic effect on mice of a massive dose of French BCG after low, medium and high dose pretreatment of the French, Glaxo and Japan BCG strains.

: Numerous laboratory experiments and field trials for tuberculosis prevention have been analyzed. The results concern the comparison of different BCG strains, the correlation between the protection and allergenic property and the degree of residual virulence as an inherited character in producing post vaccination side effects. There are more and more reports about incidence of side effects following BCG immunostimulation. We used the French, Glaxo and International Reference (Japan) strains for this toxicity test because these are the most used strains for vaccine production. The differences obtained in toxic effects of the three tested BCG strains in this experimental model suggest that the investigations should be continued and comparative analyses with histological and immunochemical methods should be extended.