The mystery of the bad pavlova

The days were glorious. It was the time of year when one needed to find a tree and subside for a few hours in the middle of the day.

Most of the clients were happy. There had been enough rain to keep the grass ticking over nicely. This made it a bit humid at night, but knowing the livestock in the area were well-fed and happy meant most of us were sleeping like babies.

We had been to a bit of a Christmas party with some friends. An outdoor feast with steak and chicken on the barbie. Somebody produced cheesecake and pavlova for afters. Our household didn’t usually run to desserts so that had been a real treat. The Vet had indulged himself generously.

But now he was tossing and turning and sweating up a storm in the bed. By morning his pillow was soggy and smelling. The sheets needed changing.

“Are you coming down with something?” I asked him. “Was it too much pav last night coming out as heat energy? Coming back to haunt you?”

“Might have been,” he admitted. “Might just be the weather too.”

I thought no more of it. But then we had a few more days without pudding, and a cooler southerly blast wafted over the top of the country and took the humidity out of the air. But the Vet was still getting a good glow on while asleep and leaving his pillow saturated.

“I know you’re hot stuff my dear, but this is ridiculous. Do you think you should go see the doctor?”

“Nah. It is probably just brucellosis rearing its head again.” “Brucie who?” “Well, a lot of old vets have it. It’s from the days when we used a live vaccine on cattle.” Brucella abortus. It was a vaccine given to all heifers at three to six months old, the one shot protecting them for life. Without the vaccine, they were at risk of aborting if they came in contact with brucellosis when they were later in calf. It was a widespread problem back in the 1970s and 1980s.

But how did it affect the Vet? Did he have to be vaccinated for it too?

“Not intentionally,” he explained. “But it happens when you’re doing hundreds of animals in a season. It’s easy to slip up.”

It turned out some of the vaccines used on livestock, like B. abortus strain 19, also caused the disease in humans if they were accidentally injected. These were live vaccines, but the pathogen had been attenuated or toned down somehow. It was enough to kick the immune system into gear, without giving a person a full-blown case. It was also highly transmissible so just by handling the stuff you were at risk if you had a cut or open skin at the time.

The effect was a bad fever, sometimes known as undulant fever.

“It comes in waves, but it can also cause miscarriage, sweating, weakness, anaemia, headaches, depression, and muscular and joint pain.” “Nice. So are you infectious?” “No. Once the initial infection is over it just becomes a chronic condition you have to live with. It might flare up if you get run down, or it just appears at random times.”

Brucellosis has now been eradicated in most countries. It was wiped out in New Zealand with a combination of vaccinating, blood tests and culling.

“There was a goat strain that was known as Malta fever or goat fever. British officers stationed at Malta at the turn of the century often came down with it. They finally worked out it was coming from the goat population, and the troops probably got it drinking unpasteurised milk or eating under-cooked meat. Until the early 20th century it was endemic there. But then they began a strict policy of certifying animals and more widespread use of pasteurisation. It has been eradicated from Malta since 2005.”

“Is it a parasite or virus or what?” “It’s a bacteria and the right antibiotics will treat it. But it seems once you have had it, the fever can be with you for life.”

That means there’s a population of very sweaty vets, laboratory workers, and farmers from that time.

“Talk to any of the older vets and most of them admit to getting the sweats occasionally. It could be something else, but I have always put it down to Brucellosis.” “Not too much pudding??” “No, never too much pudding. Or maybe I am just hot stuff. Look out!”