Experimentally induced caseous lymphadenitis in goats.

Caseous lymphadenitis was experimentally induced in goats by inoculating 1 x 10(6) Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis by 3 routes: subcutaneous, intradermal, and submucosal. The incubation period for the development of abscesses in the present study ranged from 41 to 147 days, the average being 95.2 days. The shedding period for C pseudotuberculosis from opened abscesses ranged from 9 to 37 days, with an average of 20.3 days. The infection spread to mediastinal lymph nodes in 1 goat and to lumbar lymph nodes in 5 goats. None of the goats had abscesses in the mesenteric lymph nodes. Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis was recovered from all the abscessed lymph nodes but not from the feces or nasal secretions.