6
except the record of Nunn that the disease, most probably spontaneous, occurs
among camels in the Punjab and is called Zahmat or Zahmat osat in Mont-
gomery District and Mori in Hazara. During the past winter at Bareilly, I
was able to solve the question in the affirmative whether camels in these
provinces (United Provinces) are susceptible to inoculated bovine rinderpest and
vice versâ. A separate brochure will shortly be submitted to Government for
publication, but the following short resumé of facts connected with the
observed manifestations are herewith recorded. The period of incubation of
camel rinderpest when the animals are inoculated with virulent hill bovine
blood, varies from 5 to 7 days, that is, in animals which were inoculated about
mid-day and whose temperatures were taken twice daily at 9 A. M. and 4 P. M.,
the primary rise was found to take place at the 9th or between the 9th and
13th temperatures. These animals (3 in number) which received 20 c. c. of
blood, respectively, showed the first symptom of disease, viz., a sudden rise in
temperature from the normal to 39.7 or 40.6°C.—two on the 5th and the
third on the 7th day respectively—whereas two animals, each inoculated with
1 c. c. of blood, exhibited an incubation period lasting 6 days in each instance.
In the case of a camel inoculated with blood from a second camel on the 4th
day of the disease (temperature 39.6°C.), the rise of temperature took place
on the 7th day (6 full days) after inoculation.
Symptoms.—Large vesicles, which later formed ulcers, appeared on the
buccal m. m. in 5 cases of the 6 animals inoculated, the animal (one of three)
inoculated at the same time failed to develop stomatitis although the buccal
symptoms were well marked in the other two.
The gravity of the symptoms in the different animals were not always
proportionate to the quantity of blood inoculated.
Diarrhœa, with the presence of blood, was noted only in one case, although
a second animal exhibited a semi-watery condition of the fæces.
In one instance only, was complete anorexia present for a period of
24 hours, in the other 5 cases, the animals fed fairly or well and continued to
ruminate during the whole course of the disease. But little could be diagnosed
by a casual observer as to the real condition of the animals, or even with regard
to the fact that they were the subjects of a serious epizootic malady. The
hair and skin of the hind limb of several of the camels, during the latter
course of the disease, were stained a saffron colour, due to a pigment secreted
in the urine, which as the fluid escaped ran down and soiled the parts it came
in contact with. In one camel, pustules or boils on semi-solid raised bases
appeared on the skin of the inside of the right thigh and round the anus, these
persisted for three weeks, and for two after all other symptoms of rinderpest
have disappeared. When these primary boils had discharged their contents
and healed, fresh ones made their appearance on the sheath, testes and
perinæum and were followed by œdema of the hind limbs.
Recovery took place in all six animals under observation and the symptoms
of rinderpest had disappeared by the 15th to the 18th day after inoculation.
24. The virulence of the rinderpest virus appeared to decrease when
passed through camels, as evidenced by the appearance of the vesicles followed
by ulcers, only on the 5th day of the disease and their persistence for but
24 hours. No other symptoms became manifest.
25. Hill bulls.—Inoculated subcutaneously with one to 10 c. c. of camel
blood drawn respectively on the 5th or 6th day of the disease, contracted a
virulent form of rinderpest indistinguishable as to symptoms and pathological
changes, from that contracted after inoculation from a bovine source. The
period of incubation terminated at the 7th temperature and the animals
exhibited, at this early period of the disease, temperatures varying from 40.6°C.
to 40.8°C. which in each case, later, attained to a maximum of 41.2°C. Death
took place in each instance on the 6th day of the disease.
26. Experiments have been conducted in camels hyper-immunized with
bovine hill rinderpest blood, for the purpose of testing the protective power of
camel serum against rinderpest in bovines, but this series is not yet concluded.
27. (a) Piroplasmosis, (b) Trypanosomiasis and (c) Malignant œdema.—
During the past year, the above forms of disease were observed at Muktesar