The virulence of some strains of BCG for golden hamsters.

Although the injection of a large dose of BCG causes progressive, fatal disease in the Syrian golden hamster, not all BCG strains are equally active in this respect. It has been suggested that a strain to be used for vaccinating human beings should not be too weakly virulent in the hamster.Nine BCG strains, some of them widely used for BCG production, were compared with regard to their virulence for hamsters. Five of the strains were found to be of about the same high virulence; the other 4 were less virulent.Of the strains derived from the BCG that was used with success in the BCG trial conducted in Great Britain more than 15 years ago, some are more virulent for hamsters than others. It is suggested that virulence is easily lost but not gained when strains are maintained in vitro. Thus, less virulent strains would have deviated from the original protective strain, and for this reason may be less acceptable for vaccine production.