The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1882-03-16
BIaekleg in Cattle.

Blaekleg In Cattle.
Several inquirers ask how to prevent
and how to cure blackleg, and though
subject on which the Tribune has often
advised it seems needful to take it up
once more. First, there are two varieties
of the disease both dependent on the
presence in the system of minute veg
etable organisms (bacteria) which have
acquired the dangerous facility of living
and increasing in the blood and tissues
of the animal body. One form of the
malady is the malignant anthrax proper
the malignant postJile of man
caused by an organism which exists in
the blood and vital fluids in the form of
microscopic staff-shaped bodies as well
as spherical ones. This type is readily
communicable to all species of warm
blOoded animals unless they have
already been rendered unsusceptible by
an earlier attack. The second form is
associated with microscopic organism
which is found in the spherical form
only in the blood and animal fluids, and
which has not been found to attack
readily other animals than cattle.
Both are equally dangerous to cattle;
the first is quite as dangerous to man
and other warm blOodeI animals.
Whether the germs in both diseases are
but varieties of the same organism re-
mains TO be seen; what is move imme-
diately to the point is thqt both appear
to follow The same law of development.
and to depend on the same general
conditions for the maintenance of their
vlI9llenee. This is most inveterate if
secluded from air, but is gradually lost
IN the presence of free air and moisture.
Hence, the germ once introduced or de-
Yeloped in a soil of a close, impervious
and compact kind, in one overcharged
with the remains of animal or vegeta-
BILE life, or in one habitually water
logged, is preserved indefinitely, while
in one which is naturally dry, open and
porous, or which has been thoroughly
underdrained,.its sooner or later loses its
virulence, In accommodations of litter or
manure, in liquid manure tanks, in
close cellars and the like it is more like
ly to be preserved than elsewhere. To
check the progress of the malady, there
fore, and prevent new attacks, the ex-
posed cattle should at once be moved to
soil which is thoroughly drained and
perYious to moisture.
The. carcasses of the dead and all the
products of the sick Should be burned,
or if buried at all ii should be in a drv,
lime to favor speedy decomposition, and
securely fenced in so that no other cat
tie can approach the place, nor eat the
grass grown upon it for several years.
If damp or impervious soil only is at
tainable for burial, then burning the
carcasses is far to be preferred. When
q pasture has once had an outbreak OF
blackleg it cannot be considered safe
for several Years to come. The purif-
cation of such pastures may be expe-
dited by placing them under a rotation
of crops and stirring the soil as fire.
quently as possible, so as to expose the
germs to the air and lessen and remove
their virulence by changing the medium
in which they grow. The grand princi-
pie is never to be lost sight of, that il
is the habit they acquire of using up
little oxygen in their growth, which fits
these germs for growing in the blood
and it is the habit of using up much all
that units them for survival in the ami
NAL fluids where little air can be found.
The stock which has been exposed to
Infection of blackleg, whether from sick
animals or infected pastures or places,
may attain some measure of protection
| from taking daily in the food or water
| some disinfectant which will check the
| development of any germs that may be
| present on the mouth, throat stomach
or bowels. For this purpose one drachm
| carbolic acid and three drachms sui
| plate of iron may be dissolved daily in
| the drinking water of each adult animal
| or sprinkled in its food. Or one drachm
| of iodide of potassium and one-halt
/ ounce chlorate. OF potassia may be USED
! in the same way. If there is ann
| tendency to costiveness it should be
! counteracted by roots, apples, potatoes
soft mashes, or by daily doses of two OF
! three ounces of Glauber salts. Con
! stipation usually begets fever anC
/ fever strongly predispOses to the
reception of the anthrax germ. Young
animals are always most liable to the
! disease, partly because their tissues are
| soft and impossible, but largely ne
! doubt because they have not had an op
/ pOrtunity to become insusceptiblt
/ through an earlier mild attack Young
! growing animals should therefore be-
] Kept apart from pastures where blackleg
4 habitually occurs, and if they must be a
any time exposed to even the slightes
extent care should be taken to keel
| them in the most vigorous health, ant
to prevent them from becoming sud
denly plethoric.
I 10 prevent the evil eHccJS OF q RAPID
" increasing plethora it is desirable t.
! feed well at all times, and never allow
the subject to get into too low condi
ton. The use in this connection of lin
seed cake has the double effect of keep
ing the beast constantly thriving ant
cOunteracting all costiveness and fever
Some seek the same result by givins
yearling cattle weekly or semi-weelkl1
doses of half an ounce of saltpeter, or o
two ounces Glauber salts; while still 9th
ers insert tapes or strips of leather o
cord through the skin of the dewlap
and smear them frequently with crud
turpentine (pine gum) or other irritant
so as to keep up a running sore Thes
are kept in for weeks or even months
and though not an absolute protection
against the disease, yet they serve t,
materially reduce the mortality Cattl
strange to the pastures should be sub
jected to the same precaution as vOun.
growing cattle. After it has once Sc
in, blackleg runs such a rapid cours
that treatment is rarely of any avail
In mild cases the use of carbolic aei
and sulphate of iron, alternately wit
chlOrate of potassa and iodide of pOtas
SUM, as advised above, for prevention
and to the swelling oil of turpentine, o
carbolic acid in oil q to 1O) may Civ
good results. PROF. James Lar, i,s n
J. Tribune.