Leptospira icterohaemmorrhagiae in Oxford rats.

Abstract

During June and July, 1928, an epidemic of jaundice among Oxford schoolchildren drew attention to the possibility of a spirochaetal infection in these cases. The common brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) being known to be the principal reservoir in this country for Leptospira icterohaemorrhagiae, the causal organism of spirochaetal jaundice (Buchanan, 1927), the writer undertook the examination of a number of local rats. As an inquiry by the Ministry of Health into the epidemic among the children reached no definite conclusions regarding the cause of the disease, it was decided to publish this work on the infection of the rats independently of its possible connection with jaundice in the outbreak referred to.

During the course of an extensive research by a team of workers in Oxford into the epidemics of wild rodents, the long-tailed field mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus) was also found to be infected with a strain of Leptospira, but there is evidence that this is a much milder type than that infecting the rats. A detailed account of this work is being published elsewhere.

I wish to thank Prof. E. S. Goodrich for allowing me the facilities of the Department of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, and Mr C. S. Elton and Dr A. D. Gardner for their continual advice and assistance throughout the work. My thanks are also due to the Medical Research Council for expenses, and to the many people who have assisted in obtaining the rats for this investigation.