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The Effect of Dispersal during the Pre-epidemic Stage, and of subsequent Re-aggregation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2009

W. W. C. Topley
W. W. C. Topley
Affiliation:
Director of the Institute of Pasthology, Charing Cross Hospital.
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1. If a mouse-population, which has been exposed to the risk of infection, be dispersed into several small groups during the pre-epidemic stage, the total mortality will be far less than if the animals be retained as a single large group. The specific mortality will be reduced to a still greater extent.

2. During the period of dispersal, the mice forming the small groups will, in most cases, have passed through an extended pre-epidemic phase of the spread of infection. In so doing they will have acquired an appreciable degree of immunity.

3. If the small groups be later re-combined into a single aggregate, further deaths will occur; but the total mortality among a group of mice, which has been dispersed and then re-accumulated, will always be less than among a similar group, which has been retained from the commencement as a single unit of population. The specific mortality will generally show a still greater reduction.

It remains for me again to express my thanks to my colleagues, Dr H. B. Weir and Dr G. S. Wilson, for their assistance in this investigation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Hygiene , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , June 1922 , pp. 20 - 32
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1922

References

REFERENCES

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