Detection of enzootic territories and exploration of tularemia epizootics in different types of natural foci of this infection by serological examination of bird pellets and the excrements of beasts of prey.

Serological analysis (reaction of antibody neutralization) of pellets of birds and excrements of beasts of prey for the presence of tularemia microbe antigen is an efficient method of detection and investigation of epizootics in all types of natural foci of the infection and also for the exploration of new focal territories. The method permits with small expenditure of labour and within a short time, to collect material characterizing the epizootic process on a large territory. Tularemia epizootics, both having taken place in the past and ruinning at the moment of observation, are detected. It is possible to carry out the observations even in the years of a reduced number of the main carriers of the agent of tularemia and thus to trace the continuity of the epizootic process. The obtained data permit to establish the essential characteristics of the epizootic process. Detailed maps of the foci can be drawn and territories of stable preservation of infection detected.

[Exploration of natural foci of tularemia and plague in Armenia using the serological examination of bird droppings and excrements of predatory mammals]. / Rekognostsirovochnoe obsledovanie prirodnykh ochagov tuliaremii i chumy v Armenii putem serologicheskogo issledovaniia pogadok ptits i ekskrementov khishchnykh mlekopitaiushchikh.

Forty strains of tularemia and 619 of plague microbes were isolated in 1974 in bacteriological examination of natural plague and tularemia foci from a great number of small mammals and their ectoparasites. At the same time in serological examination (in the antibody neutralization test) of bird pellets, 52 mummified cadavers, and 34 excretion samples of mammalian beasts of prey collected in Armenia (its central and North-Western part) in 1973 the antigen of tularemia microbe was revealed in 73, 8, and 3, and of plagye--in 42, 5, and 1 cases, respectively. In one of the sites examined the number of positive findings failed to exceed 10--17%, this indicating a low intensity of the epizootic in the majority of the places. Judging by the mean titres of the serological test, which varied from 1:12 to 1:1428 in examination for tularemia and from 1:12 to 1428 in examination for plague, it was possible to detect both epizootics coursing during the examination, and those which occurred several monts ago. Tularemia and plague foci were not infrequently present at the same territories, and these diseases could involve the same individual animals of Microtus arvalis (Pall.). The data obtained pointed to the greater effectiveness of examination of bird's pellets and excretions of mammalian beasts of prey for the reconnaisance investigation of the natural foci of plague and tularemia in comparison with the bacteriological methods applied usually.