A SYSTEMATIC STUDY OF THE PATHOGENICITY OF SIXTY-TWO STRAINS OF CORYNEBACTERIUM RENALE FOR LABORATORY

Corynebacterium renale is the etiological agent of a specific cystitis and pyelo-nephritis of cattle. Aberrant C. renale infections have been reported in a horse by Foss (1944), in horses and sheep by Boyd and Bishop (1937), and in a dog by Olafson (1930). Ernst (1906) and Jones and Little (1926) were unable to infect mice with C. renale. Lovell (1946) reported that C. renale was pathogenic for mice provided an adequate number were given intravenously. Morse and Morgan (1951) were able to infect mice by intravenous and intraperitoneal inoculations of strains of C. renale which were isolated from the urine or posterior urogenital tracts of apparently normal cattle. Morse and Wipf (1951) studied the epizootiology, pathogenicity, and pathogenesis of a diphtheroid which, although it resembled C. renale in cellular and colonial morphology, differed from it in biochemical reactivity. The investigations cited stimulated the authors to investigate the pathogenicity for white mice of a number of C. renale strains isolated from pyelonephritis-in