Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1892-09-08
for Means to Destroy
Animal Parasites-Kcep the Bull
in a Pen.
uorses pull ut the BIT Because They Are
Ignorant-How 20 Handle Roll
Butter, &C., &C.
Animal Parasites.

A recent discovery W IHc SiCS' 'h"'
the trichine of pork, which caused the
American hog to be shut out OF Europe
| SO long, are from rats, has given new
impetus to the pursuit Of a line OF IN
vestigation which has been claiming
the attention of the United States
government, says a Washington cor
respondent of the n. Y. San. DR..
Leackhart, the great LeiPsic professor
who made the discovery, ascertaIned
bv the dissection of rats that 40 per
cent of them were infected by trichin9.
Rats are canuibals. They eat their
own offspring and each other, and
spread the infection. Whether they
ever die of trichincsis is not known,
| although it makes them lame ome
times. Pigs deyour them and contract
the complaint. Human bcings in their
turn eat the pigs, and the trichin9
develop, with fatal results frequently.
The disease is reckoned the most dead
ly known. inasmuch as it kills in 90
per cent of all eases. Among the
animals attacked by it are cats, dogs,
horses. bears, and rabbits, although
how they get the parasites is uncer-
tain.
The department of agriculture is at
present giving earnest attention to the
study of animal parasites, with a view
of finding out methods for lighting
against some of them which cause a
loss of many millions of dollars yearly
to farmers. 1t has made a big dis
covery recently in relation TO the fatal
disease of cattle called Texas fever,
which is caused by a minute animal
called a ~protozoon, that feeds on the
red c~orpusclas in the blood and de-
stroys them. Recent developments of
knowledge reveal the protozOa as pro-
ducers of morbid complaints. 1t has
been asceYtained that the cause OF
malaria is a p]rotozoon which feeds on
the blood corpu.cles, and another
microscopic foe of like description is
responsible for certain forms OF dysente-
nv. Undoubtedly many disorders not
now understood will eventually be re-
ferred to a similar origin.
The department is trying to discover
means for combating another parasite,
which causes a loss of nearly So, , 1900
n year in cattle slaughtered in Chicago.
1t is the dreaded heel-fy, which lays
its ergs on the backs of the animals,
the worms Matched from them boring
through the skin and remaining buried
for several months in the flesh. On
emerging they fail to the ground and
form the chrvsalis condition, come out
as perfect flies, ready to lay their eggs
on the backs of other cattle, that being
their only method Of reproduction. If
a hide at the market has more than
five holes made by the worms it is rated
-. -,.,,I ,V,,1str nd tho nonotC soil
foi ! cent less a pound in gross.
Another insect, known in the west
as the gadfy, attacks horses, laying it:
eggs on the animals. The horse ticks
himself and conveys the eggs to its
stomach, where they are Matched, the
worms clinging TO the stomach walls.
Very often they bore through the
stomach and kill the horse. a parasitic
worm known rs the liver fiuke at
taches itself during a certain stage of
its being to the liver and lungs of cat
tie. During its early growth it goes
through a series of astonishing meta
morphoses, developing a new self
inside of its old self in a different
shape several times. Finally it leaves
the BODY of the beast, and what be-
comes Of it is not known precisely; but
there is no doubt that it is rams
formed into q species of snail that lives
in wet places. 1t certainly must lay
its eggs in such spots, whore the cattle
lick them up. thus completing the
cycle of its being.
Only a beginning has been made by
this government in the work of fight
ing the parasites of animals. BY al
ways condemning the pigs which are
infected with trichinR the disease will
be rendered less common. Heel-fies
and gadilies are combated successfully
and destroyed by spreading tar ONT
ment over the bodies of the beasts at
tackled. In its labors the bureau of
animal industry Of the department OF
agriculture devotcs its attention first
to studying the life history of each
parasite, in order 10 find out at what
stage of its existence the enemy a be
attacked to the best advantage. Hav-
ing procured a fun knowledge of the
habits and manner of existence of the
adversary it is comparatively easy to
in tnz-4ar.a VvffA &c aY,a-,Nt,-