Treatment with Chloramphenicol, Aureomycin, and Terramycin of the Pneumonia of Mice Caused by Feline Pneumonitis Virus

Abstract

The purpose of this communication is to report in some detail the effect of three of the newer antibiotics on experimental infection with the virus of feline pneumonitis. The antibiotics studied are chloramphenicol, aureomycin and terramycin, and the condition under scrutiny is the pneumonitis of mice resulting from intranasal inoculation of feline pneumonitis virus. This agent was isolated in 1942 by Baker (1) from lungs of cats showing catarrhal symptoms and pneumonia. He demonstrated that it could be readily established in mice with the production of transmissible pneumonitis, and cultivated in embryonated eggs. He also discovered elementary bodies in affected tissues. Subsequently Thomas and Kolb (2) showed by complement fixation studies that Baker's virus was closely related to psittacosis virus and the Nigg pneumonitis virus of mice, thereby placing it in the psittacosis-lymphogranuloma group of large filterable viruses.