[Phagocytic activity of leukocytes in animals infected with M. avium and M. scrofulaceum]

The condition of phagocytic activity of peripheric blood neutrophils in the development of tuberculosis and experimental mycobacterioses caused by such "atypical" mycobacteria, as M. avium and M. scrofulaceum was studied. In all the infection processes analysed, undulating nature of the changes in a functional activity of phagocytosing neutrophils (including their absorbing and digestive capacity) was discovered. The pathology of phagocytosis found is equally characteristic of the groups of animals contaminated with M. bovinus-8 and "atypical" M. avium, and differs from that observed in the disease induced by M. scrofulaceum scotochromogen.