Transmission of Epidemic Gastroenteritis to Human Volunteers by Oral Administration of Fecal Filtrates

Abstract

Epidemic gastroenteritis was transmitted to human volunteers by the oral administration of fecal filtrates. The original inocula were obtained from patients in a natural outbreak which occurred at Marcy State Hospital in the winter of 1946–47. The experimental disease closely resembled that of the donors. The incubation period ranged from I to 5 days, with a mean of 3 days. The disease was carried through three generations, in the last two by means of fecal filtrates. Oral administration of unfiltered throat washings from experimental cases of the disease likewise induced gastroenteritis but subjects who inhaled a portion of the same throat washings remained asymptomatic. Volunteers who inhaled throat washings taken from patients in the epidemic at Marcy State Hospital also failed to develop the disease. Five volunteers who had previously been inoculated with fecal filtrates were reinoculated with the same material. Gastroenteritis followed in one of the two subjects who had failed to contract the disease the first time. The others remained well. Embryonated hens' eggs were inoculated with one of the two unfiltered stool suspensions used in the pool which had induced gastroenteritis in each of the three volunteers to whom it was fed. Three sets of eggs were inoculated: one on the chorioallantoic membrane, another into the yolk sac, and a third into the amniotic sac. Three serial passages were carried out by each method at varying time intervals. Penicillin and streptomycin were employed as antibacterial agents. Tissue and extraembryonic fluids from the third passage were non-infective for volunteers.

Winter vomiting disease in Florida students

“…The outbreaks have nearly always taken place between September and March. Numerous reports (Zahorsky, 1929;Ailler & Raven, 1936;Gray, 1939;Bradley, 1943;Reimann et al 1945a;Gordon et al 1947;Hargreaves, 1947;Kuhns & Wetherbee, 1950;Ingalls & Britten, 1951;Webster, 1953;Simpson, 1954;Haworth et al 1956, Pollock & Clayton, 1964Cumming & McEvedy, 1969) in the British and American literature over the past three decades have described epidemics of Winter Vomiting Disease (synonyms are epidemic vomiting, epidemic gastroenteritis, epidemic nausea and vomiting, and epidemic diarrhoea and vomiting), and the subject has been reviewed in recent years (Editorial, 1969;Webb & Wallace, 1966 (Cheever, 1967) have been associated with viral dysentery, the term Reimann (1963) uses to include Winter Vomiting Disease and its synonyms, but attempts to isolate and identify a virus in several large-scale autumn and winter school and institutional outbreaks have been unsuccessful (Webster, 1953;Haworth et al 1956;Pollock & Clayton, 1964).…”

“…Reimann et al (1945b) were able to transmit epidemic gastroenteritis to volunteers by both inhalation and ingestion of bacteria-free faecal filtrates. Gordon et al (1947) were able to transmit the disease from a New York institutional outbreak by feeding bacteria-free stool filtrates to a group of volunteers. Jordan et al (1953), in a series of experiments in a group of Cleveland families, found that they too were able to transmit the disease to volunteers.…”

“…The afebrile type, produced by the Marcy agent obtained in New York (Gordon et al 1947), had an experimental incubation period of 60 hr. It was characterized by profuse, watery diarrhoea and no fever.…”

“…Subsequently, several large autumn and winter outbreaks of acute gastrointestinal illness have been reported, in which viral agents were suspected but could not be isolated Gordon, Ingraham & Korns, 1947; Kuhns & Wetherbee, 1950;Webster, 1953;Haworth, Tyrrell & Whitehead, 1956;Walker et al 1960;McLean, McNaughton & Wyllie, 1961;Pollock & Clayton, 1964). The incubation period and mode of spread of this disease are not established.…”

Comparative molecular genetic studies of nucleic acid detection of human noroviruses

“…These were said to present acute, infectious and non-bacterial gastroenteritis. Clinical studies where volunteers were exposed to fecal extracts that had been filtered to remove all bacteria, confirmed the hypothesis that a viral agent was likely cause (3) .…”