Semi-weekly herald., 1912-09-23
SPINAL MENINGITIS
SPREADING AMONG
COLORADO HORSES
Western Press

western TTeSS
FORT COLLINS, Sept. 21.-That
the disease which is killing horses anC
mules in Kansas and southern Colo.
RADIO by the hundreds is spinal men
ingitis is the statement of Dr. b. 7
Kaupp, pathologist at the state agri-
cultural college, after making exten.
sive Investigations.
DR.. Kaupp will leave Monday for
the vicinity of Lamar and Holly, pre-
pared to vaccinate 1000 horses twice
in an effort to prevent the spread of
the disease.
Twenty thousand horses, repre-
senting value of $2,000,000, have
died in Kansas of spinal meilinr is
during the last two months. Tltis
Of DR.. W. W. Yard state veterina
rian of Colorado, who has just coh-
Guided tour of insGcetica f Kan
sas.
The epidemic has spread to Wyom-
ing and Minnesota and traces of its
ravagees have been detected in Mis-
souri, and Colorado, but the quarantine
established in Colorado against horses
and mules from the infected states
is being depended upon to prevent
the disease from spreading in this
state.
The spinal meningitis, as it is af-
fecting the horses of the infected dis
tricts, is an inflammatory disease of
the covering membranes of the brain
and the spinal cord and it causes
death in from twenty-four hours to
three days.
According to the reports received
during my recent visit" said DR.. Yard
"the infection has spread to seventy
five out of the 105 counties of Kan
sas. When | was in Kansas there
were veterinarians there from Wyom-
ing and Minnesota There were twelve
of the foremost federal veterinarians
in the field. They had established sew
eral field laboratories. The Park Da-
Wis company had also established a
specill field laboratory. An official
from the Rockefeller institute was
there as well. The condition is re-
garded as serious ard it may entail
the loss of millions of dollars in
horses hefore it is stamped out.
$50 lar they have not been able to
discover the cause CO the epidemic.
All they know is that it is there and
the chief effort nov !, to prevent its
spread'n3. In Kansas, on the Colo-
rado line, the epiden'ic has been e.
hiritrd from Holly &c Julesburg ard
special inspectors have been appoint
ed by our state stock inspection board
TO quarantine Colorado securely"
According to DR.. Yard the epidemic
affects sucking colts as quickly as 19-
year-old horses, and the chief pre-
cautions against it are these:
Take all horses and mules off green
feed.
Feed them preferably on last years
hay or the early crop of this year.
Give them an occasional laxative,
such as salts.
Keep all water troughs clean.
All surface water should be drained
off.
All vegetable growth should be cut
down and destroyed by fire.
Stables and other premises should
be kept scrupulously clean.
All animals that die of the disease
should be Immediately burned or bur-
led six feet deep in lime and the
premises where they died carefully
disinfected
So far only thirty cases have been
reported in Colorado, and it is doubt
full whether they are cases of actual
spinal meningitis.
There was similar epidemic of
spinal meningitis among horses in
the Atlantic states in 1872 and 1873,
and it was so severe that all the sur
face cars in New York city, which
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