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APPENDIX XXIX.
APPENDIX TO LOODIANAH DISEASE.
Symptoms of Loodianah disease.—The animal is seized suddenly; he may have fed and
appeared well but an hour before. He becomes very dull and refuses all food, walks with
difficulty, the head is protruded, the respirations are greatly increased and oppressed, and
the pulse is small and quick. There appears a swelling about the jaws and throat, which
is at first soft, but soon becomes tense. The swelling increases rapidly, often involving
the whole head and extending down to the chest, and eventually causes death from
suffocation due to mechanical obstruction of the larynx (air passage). The mucous
membrane of the eye is of a yellowish-red colour, with dark-red or purple spots on its
surface; and it may or may not be swollen. In some oases the entire surface of the
membrane may be of a deep-red colour without any spots. The internal temperature is
always raised several degrees above normal, varying from 107° to 109° Fahrenheit; and in
some cases it is maintained persistently high till death, while in others there is a sudden
fall in the temperature before death to below normal.
The thermometrical conditions are not regular in all cases, but the temperature is
always above normal, especially in the early stages. The urine is scanty and high coloured,
and the dung costive and coated with mucus. From the commencement of the attack there
is often an abundant discharge of a yellow serous fluid from the nostrils, which later on
passes even from the rectum.
As the disease progresses the pulse becomes entirely lost, the patient has a most
baggard expression, muscular tremors occur, the animal's body is bedewed with a cold
sweat, which sometimes pours off him: there may be colicky pains, the animal lying down
and rising every few minutes; and he may either suddenly drop down dead and fall to the
ground and die in violent convulsions. Loodianah disease is remarkable for its sudden
occurrence, its extreme fatality, and its generally rapid course.
The appearance of the disease among a number of animals is frequently indicated by
the death of some of them in so short a time as half an hour. Some animals, however,
withstand the disease longer, though death generally occurs within twenty-four hours. Other
cases may linger for two or three days and then terminate in death, or even occasionally in
recovery.
The above are the usual symptoms of Loodianah disease, but they are liable to vary
considerably not only in different outbreaks, but also in different cases.
For practical purposes, Anthrax and Loodianah are one and the same disease, as far as
our knowledge goes at present.
APPENDIX XXX.
TICK PLAGUE.
TICK plague, Red water, or hæmaturia, was noticed some ten years ago in North Queens-
land. The disease is confined to cattle. Horses, pigs, sheep and goats do not suffer from the
disease, but I do not know whether camels or buffaloes do. It has often been mistaken for
anthrax, probably because the spleen in both diseases is found on post-mortem to be in an
abnormal condition. The period of incubation is said to be from five to twelve days. The
course of disease varies; some animals succumb in a few days, others are ill for weeks or
months and become extremely emaciated.
Symptoms.—The temperature is exceedingly high, often going up to 109° Fahrenheit.
The skin is very hot, the eyes bright, through the eye(—)sight may be somewhat affected, the
animal totters in its walk, the nose is dry, the muous membrane pale, bowels costive, fœces
hard, sometimes covered with blood-stained mucus; later diarrhœa and dysentery set in.
The urine varies from a deep yellow to a dark-red or black. In chronic oases the urine is
not discoloured.
The following additional symptoms have been described to me by a shipper, who says
he has seen much of the disease. According to his statement, the animals that have most
ticks on them suffer most. He says "the animals are thickly covered with ticks, but go on
feeding, but at last they become weak and paralyzed, get diarhœa and dysentery, and then
die."
Mr C. J. Pound, Director of the Stock Institute, Brisbane, as the result of his work
is enabled to say that the disease is due to a protozoon, which is passed into the patient's
system by ticks. The mature female tick as seen in the animal's skin has an oblong oval-
shaped body resembling the seed of a castor-oil plant, and is of a dull leaden grey. It
rarely exceeds half inch in length or 1/16th inch in breadth. It buries its head in the skin of the
patient. The male tick is usually found attached to the skin of the patient just under the
female. Its body is dark brown in colour and somewhat triangular in shape. It does not
fill itself with blood like the female. After being fecundated by the male, the female falls
to the ground, lays an enormous number of eggs, and then dies.
The period of incubation of the eggs in a temperature ranging from 90° to 110° Fahrenheit
was 14 to 26 days, but when the temperature was lower, incubation was correspondingly
longer. In the larval stage the ticks are extremely tenacious of life, and will live at least 17
weeks without food, water, or fresh air. Mr. Pound asserts that these young ticks will com-
municate infection to healthy cattle.