Etiology of oroya fever

Abstract

The inoculation of a chimpanzee with cultures and a passage strain of Bartondla bacilliformis induced local reactions which, while definite and characteristic, progressed less rapidly and were much less striking than those in the control rhesus monkey. Bartondla bacilliformis was demonstrated in the blood corpuscles with difficulty, and the fever was slight compared with the high and persistent fever of the rhesus monkey. In both the swelling of the lymph glands was an early symptom and constantly present. Definite anemia developed in the chimpanzee only after accidental infection with Rocky Mountain spotted fever and may have been due to either one or both infections, though it disappeared when the blood had become negative by culture for Bartnella bacilliformis and the local lesions had disappeared. Incidentally, the chimpanzee was found in this one instance to be less susceptible to the spotted fever than Macacus rhesus and guinea pigs. © 1926, Rockefeller University Press., All rights reserved.