A Comparison of the Effect of Penicillin and Immune Serum in the Treatment of Experimental Leptospirosis in Young White Mice and in Hamsters

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Abstract
Leptospira icterohaemorrhagiae was used to infect 3-week-old Swiss mice and a strain of L. canicola to infect hamsters. The animals were then treated after varying intervals by the administration of doses of the Na salt of penicillin intraperit. twice daily for 4 days or intraperit. administration of a single dose of specific immune serum prepared from horses or rabbits. The results obtained indicated that penicillin was about as efficient as serum in the treatment of leptospirosis in mice and hamsters but that the effectiveness of the therapeutic materials depended greatly upon the elapsed interval between administration of the infective material and the administration of drugs. Thus in 1 expt. both serum and penicillin were effective in causing survival of 87.5% of mice treated 52 hrs. after administration of the infective dose of organisms. When treatment was started after an interval of 72 hrs. only 25% of the animals given immune serum and 18.7% of those tested with penicillin survived. All of those animals in which treatment was started after an interval of 92 hrs. succumbed to infection.

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