Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1903-04-02
STRANGE CATTLE DISEASE.
Governor cummins Urged to Order
Investigation.


Des Moines, March Ex-Governor
Cummins has been called upon to send
the state veterinarian into southern
Iowa to investigate strange disease
that has been killing cattle by the doz-
en-, and whose ravages the veterinari-
ans in that section or the state have
been powerless to check. Wayne and
Decatur counties have been most dis
astrously affected. The township
trustees at Humeston, Wayne county,
have united in demand that the
state veterinarian be sent to the scene
of the trouble under the section Of the
code which makes it the veterinarians
duty to visit any part of the state up
on the written request of a majority
of the county supervisors. township
trustees or city councilmen inter
ested.
The new disease has many symp
toms similar to those of hydrophobia.
DR.. John J. Repp. professor at the
state college at Ames, who is also one
of the deputies of the state veterinar
ian, has been called upon for an opiu-
| ion by the farmers whose cattle have
been infected by the disease. From
description given him Professor
Repp decided that the disease might
be rabies. but advised that an official
investigation by the veterinarian be
asked for.
A local veterinarian at Garden
Grove, Decatur county, pronounced
the disease brain fever. The cattle
frothed at the mouth, bled from the
nose and were very fierce. They
refuse to eat or drink after beins
taken with the disease. One man re
ported that a COW that he had had for
years tried to climb into the wagon tc
\ get at him when he drove through
! the barn yard The local veterinarian
recommended the application OF tur
pentine to the backs of the infected
animals to stimulate the circulation oi
the blood and take 1t away from the
| BRAIN Post-mortem examinations OF
| the bodies of two of the cows were
held and the investigators reported
that there was no excess Of blood al
the brain, no signs of poison in the
stomach and no other condition that
a! explained the cause OF death.
Captain ]. S. Clark of Des Moines
has lost ten cattle already by the raw
ages of the strange disease. Captain
Clark's farm is near the county line
between Wayne and Decatur, and ad
joining the Burlington railroad. "One
of my men writes me that the people
there are unable to solve the mystery
of the disease" said Captain Clark.
"The trouble was first reported to me
a month ago. At that time three cows
had been killed by the disease. Since
then ten more have been killed and
there is no let-up. My man reports
that the disease is prevalent in other
localities in that part of the state, and
that the farmers and stock men are
very much wrought up. He says that
the cattle act very pncb. as If they
were mad. They run about in fur
ious state, and pay no attention to
fences running over or through
them Invariably. One of them attack
4 ed him in the yard and he had difficult
ty in escaping unhurt. The cattle live
only about twenty-four hours afte.
they have been taken with the dis
ease. There has been a maddox
scare in that section of the state, bu,
no one knows of any cattle having
been bitten. and 1t is not known how
the disease could spread among the
cattle. They don't bite. though they
are very ferocious. They refuse to
take food or water"