Melioidosis in a Horse

Abstract

A race-horse, which had been imported into the Malay States from Australia, got out of condition and occasionally coughed up thick pus. Five specimens of pus were brought to the laboratory between February and July, 1925, and on each occasion B. whitmori was isolated from it. The blood of the horse agglutinated the standard strain of B. whitmori in high dilutions. The morpho-logical characters, and the biological reactions of the organism isolated from the horse were the same as those of the type strain (Ragaviah) of B. whitmori; and cross-agglutination and cross-absorption tests showed that they were identical. The strain was highly pathogenic for guinea-pigs and rats. The horse was killed in September, 1926, eighteen months after B. whitmori was first isolated from the nasal pus. No active lesions were found at autopsy and B. whitmori was not isolated from the organs.