[Findings of Corynebacterium equi Magnusson 1923 in connection with foal mortality in the Eastern Bohemia Region].

A case history of mass foal disease which affected ten of the total stock of 50 foals and killed eight is described. The disease was characterized by respiratory disorders and extensive pneumonias with abscess formation, metastatic abscesses in mesenterial lymph nodes and in other organs. As a result of the examination of two dead foals and three nasal smears from diseased animals, gram-positive bacteria were isolated from the lungs, pulmonary and abdominal abscesses and the nasal smears of the affected foals; with their cultivation, morphological and biochemical characteristics these bacteria correspond to the species Corynebacterium equi. The properties of the four isolated strains were compared with the most important literary data.