PORCINE CONTAGIOUS PLEUROPNEUMONIA I. EXPERIMENTAL TRANSMISSION, ETIOLOGY, AND PATHOLOGY

An acute frequently rapidly fatal respiratory illness occurring as an epidemic disease in Argentine swine has been shown to have a bacterium of the genus Hemophilus as its causative agent. This organism, for which the name Hemophilus pleuropneumoniae is suggested, causes a singular, fulminating pleuropneumonia in experimental swine. The very marked effectiveness of H. pleuropneumoniae as a respiratory pathogen contrasts strikingly with the relatively mild pathogenicity of the well known swine Hemophilus, H. influenzae suis, which, in concert with a virus, causes a less highly fatal respiratory ailment, swine influenza. Porcine contagious pleuropneumonia (PCP) is contagious under experimental conditions. In the pathogenesis of the disease, histopathological studies of early cases suggest that the lymphatics of the lung and pleura may be primarily involved and that the pneumonia and pleuritis then proceed from these initial sites of reaction.