The Disinfection of Trout Eggs Contaminated with Bacterium Salmonicida

like lesions that occur in the musculature of the infected fish. The "furuncles'" often break through the skin, discharging a red, pus-like material consisting of bacteria, blood corpuscles, and disintegrated muscle tissue. The lesion is not, strictly speaking, a furuncle or boil since there is no accumulation of white corpuscles at the focus of infection; nor is there any protective tissue reaction, such as characterizes the furuncle in higher animals. The term "furunculosis't has been used to designate this disease by numerous investigators over a period of years, and hence is of sufficient specificity to characterize this pathological condition. Mackie, et al., (1930) isolated Bacterium salmonicida from the ripe ovaries of experimentally infected fish, and Smith (1939) isolated this bacterium from the shell of trout eggs. Plehn (1911), Williamson (1929), and Mackie, et al., (1930) failed to find B. salmonicida inside trout eggs. It is concluded, therefore, that the eggs serve as mechanical carriers, and that the bacteria are found only on, not in the egg.