Temperature response in animals infected with Bacillus anthracis.

Rats, rabbits, swine, guinea pigs, and monkeys were infected with anthrax spores, and their temperature responses were recorded. These were characteristic for a species and appeared independent of resistance or susceptibility of the species toward establishment of the disease. The rabbit appeared unique in that it not only failed to demonstrate a dose-response relationship over an 8-log dose range, but acted independently producing erratic body temperatures depending on spore dose. This limits the usefulness of the rabbit in studying anthrax pathogenesis, and poses questions regarding published data with the rabbit as the test animal.