[The pathogenesis of swine plague. The hepato-cerebral syndrome]

A total of 106 pigs were artificially infected with a pathogenic virus of swine fever band were later on killed at the time they had developed a characteristic clinical picture of acute fever. The post-mortem examination revealed that in sixteen animals there was equally expressed hemorrhagic diathesis, five of which had clinical icterus, five manifested subclinical icterus, and six showed no icterus. Histophathologic study was performed of the liver, the cerebrum, the cerebellum, the medulla oblongata and the spinal cord. A correlation was found to exist between the extent to which the lesions had spread in the liver and the cerebrum, especially in the cases manifesting icterus (both clinical and subclinical). It gave grounds to assume that in animals affected with swine fever there exists the so-called cerebrum syndrome as described in the case of some other diseases.