The Double Intradermal Tuberculin Test

Eradication of bovine tuberculosis from New South Wales — A century of endeavour

“…Later New South Wales writers on the tuberculin test were Larkin (1937), who commented favourably on the intradermal test, and Hungerford (1939) who wrote on the double intradermal test. A little later, Bull et af (1939) presented the first report of the Committee on the Use and Standardisation of Tuberculin, Australian Veterinary Association, This committee could not give an opinion on the relative merits of the different types of intradermal tests or of the subcutaneous test, but they did recommend the use of "synthetic" tuberculin for intradermal tests, This was a product obtained from cultures of M. tuberculosis on synthetic media and consisted mainly of tuberculo-proteins in contrast to Old Tuberculin, which was produced on glycerine-veal broth and contained complex proteins, It is not clear when the single intradermal test came ir,to its ascendency in New South Wales, but in the Livestock Diseases Report for 1941142 is the statement that "with few exceptions, the testing was undertaken with the single intradermal test".…”