The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-08-02
THE TEXAS CATTLE FEVER.

pages on its rayages in Virginia may be found
in the Department of Agriculture Report for
1888. This disease has been prevalent for
sixty years in southern Virginia under
the name Of cattle distemper. The map of
the disease shows that it is spread over the
southern half Of the State, extending irregu-
larly northward, between the thirty seventh
and thirty eighth parallels, at the average rate
Of two miles year. The disease is checked
by frost and snow, but not destroyed, while
mountain ranges and rivers check its course,
but do not stop it. The department inves-
tigated 536 deaths in 1882, and estimate
the actual annual loss to Virginia
at 100000 The Virginia stockmen agree
that the disease was imported from the pine
and swamp region of eastern North Carolina.
Outbreaks have occurred also in Pennsyl-
vania, Charlottesville, Maryland; Pawnee and
Barbour counties, Kansas; in northern Geor
gia and southern Tennessee, and at Fort
Davis, Texas, and were investigated by the
department surgeon. The disease is anon
alous among stock ailments. Cattle In APP
parent perfect. health, coming from regions
permanently injected with Texas fever, poison
the pastures on which they travel and the
pens and sheds in which they feed to such an
extent as to prove fatal to large majority Of
the susceptible cattle which Craze OF feed
after them.
How the poison is carried Or distributed,
whether by saliva, skin, nasal discharges or
excrements, is not known. The dis
ease is believed to be contracted only
from infected grounds and troughs, and
not by germs blown through the air or direct
ly from one animal to another. DR.. G. L.
Neal, health officer Of Dayton, o., says: mo
instance occurred where a native contracted
the disease which had not been exposed
directly to the ground where the long horns
had grazed. Dr. Manheimer, who investi-
gated many cases in Chicago in 1868, says the
native cattle do not communicate the disease
to each other when housed in the same stables.
DR.. j. F. Hodgen, Of the st. Louis Board of
Health, reports; sNCattle running about the
stockyards where Texas cattle are received
are affected, while others near by, kept
up closely, are not diseased" While native
other native cattle, they can and do infect
pastures, and render them poisonous until the
contagion is destroyed by the frosts Of winter
The disease is practically limited to August
and September, with few cases in July and
October. Milk cows fat cattle and working
oxen are usually affected, the calves escaping
even when nursing successfully from several
sick mothers. Apparently healthy cattle in
feet pastures weeks after leaving their native
country. Sick animals do not spread the
contagion. A fence will arrest the disease;
so will heavy frost.
The disease is everywhere characterized by
the dropping head, Topped ears, staggering
gait and bloody urine. These symptoms are
common to the splenic fever which deyastates
the herds of Europe, as are also the enlarged
spleen and liver and the engorged kidneys
The duration Of the disease, however, is much
longer than with splenic fever. On post
norton, the erosion and alterations
Of the stomach are characteristic, and this
with the absence of the microbe, bacillus
anthracis demonstrated to be the cause Of
splenic fever, and the much greater duration
Of the disease is sufficient to distinguish be-
tween the two diseases. The spleen is usually
found disintegrating, and with the splenic
pulp Dr. Salmon claims to have produced the
disease in healthy cattle by incubation. No
special germ is as yet proved to be the cause
of this disease, although one is found in the
splenic matter The blood, also, is free from
microbes, although they are found in the
bile.
AS to prevention, the susceptible animals
should be placed where none Of the
foreign cattle have been It exposes
them to eat or pass through the same
pastures or roads, or to use the same sheds,
yards, OF water troughs- In Virginia DR.. Sal
mon advised State assembly Of stock-growers
not to bring any cattle from the infected
regions except in December and january, and
even then there is some danger to the stock in
the regions traversed. There is no remedy
known, although many have been tried. The
fever is non-recurrent In the light Of what
is known about this disease, the Chicago
authorities acted promptly and wisely in or
dering the infected cattle killed. In no case
should the diseased Texas cattle, or native cat
tie taking the disease from pastures whore the
lOng-horns have grazed be allowed to contain