Sweating sickness: relative curative effect of hyperimmune serum and a precipitated immunoglobulin suspension and immunoblot identification of proposed immunodominant tick salivary gland proteins.

Although of low morbidity, sweating sickness is readily induced in calves by infestation with positive Hyalomma truncatum adult ticks. This epitheliotrophic disease has no specific cure except by the administration of hyperimmune serum obtained from animals which have recovered and are subsequently immune to the disease. Treatment with hyperimmune serum, however, has associated problems of donor availability, possible serum contamination and i.v. administration of a relatively large volume. This paper compares the treatment and cure of sweating sickness using unrefined hyperimmune serum and that of an experimental suspension. The latter proved relatively inefficient probably due to a low concentration of effective immunoglobulins. Immunoblot analyses of the sera of affected animals, using tick salivary glands as antigen during the course of the trial revealed 4 tick salivary gland proteins with molecular masses of between 27-33 kDa. These are proposed as being associated with sweating sickness immunodominance.

The efficacy of hyperimmune serum in the treatment of sweating sickness.

Natural and experimental cases of sweating sickness were treated using a hyperimmune serum as specific treatment and hyperimmune serum combined with symptomatic and supportive treatment based on the clinicopathological changes observed in cases of sweating sickness. The treatment regimens were found to be highly effective in pigs and sheep as well as in calves, although recovery in the latter species was slower.

Tick toxicosis in North America.

This is a case presentation and review of an uncommon disorder, tick toxicosis. The history, epidemiology, pathophysiology, and treatment are discussed. This disorder was mentioned in diaries from the early 1800s and has been reported in 18 states and the District of Columbia. A review of 70 cases reveals that the typical patient is a female child who develops leg weakness, irritability, or clumsiness. The exact site at which the toxin induces the paralysis is unknown. Removal of the tick usually reverses the paralysis within hours. Confusing tick toxicosis with other disorders may occur, and death has resulted. This article will remind physicians to consider tick toxicosis when seeing patients with acute ataxia or ascending paralysis and to, perhaps, prevent death from an easily treatable disorder.

Treatment of arachnid poisoning in Australia.

Most Australian spiders are capable of causing a bite which produces some degree of local reaction and occasionally systemic effects. However, only the Sydney funnel-web spider which is limited to a 160 kilometre radius from the centre of Sydney and the red-back spider which is found in all States are capable of inflicting a potentially lethal bite.

The pajaroello tick bite. The frightening folklore and the mild disease.

The pajaroella tick (Ornithodoros coriaceus) has a fairly wide distribution in the coastal and mountainous areas of California and Mexico. Persons engaged in outdoor activities there, are frequently bitten. Little is written in the medical literature concerning the tick and its bite. What has been written is liberally injected with frightening folklore that sometimes results in overzealous treatment. Conservative and supportive therapy is advisable and only rarely should one have to resort to such treatment as excision of an area of tissue necrosis to prevent ulceration and prolongation of healing.