Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1913-07-17
HORSE PLAGUE DUE
TO FORAGE POISON
The Kansas Commission Re-
ports Results OF Inquiry:
DISEASE is NOT INFECTIOUS
The Investigators Find That the Sick
ness Which Killed So Many
Horses Was Due to
Climatic Conditions


horses and mules in Western Kansas
was not an infectious or contagious
disease. but poison caused by I'M
usual climatic conditions. Tnere is no
known cure for it. 1t is not likely to
occur again for years AMI yet 1t may
come at any time.
This is the report of the special COM
mission of the University of Kansas
named by Chancellor Strong and Gov
ernor Stubs last fall to investigate
the disease. The report is based on
the work of the commission at its
research station at Ness City. The
government had station az Dodge
City with sixteen Investigators work
ing and the agricultural college had a
station at Hoxie and the three sets of
investigators concurred in general
with the findings Of the university
commission, submitted to Governor
Hodges.
The university commission was COM
mologist; w. K. Trimble, associate
professor of clinical pathology; DIR. A.
L. Skogg Of Kansas City and N. P.
Sherwood, instructor in bacteriology.
In its detailed report on the disease
which caused such heavy losses to
Kansas farmers the commission said:
This disease so far as known is not
contagious. not infectious, has not
been transmitted from horse to horse,
nor from horse to man.
mo specific organisms of virus
have yet been found or described that
can be considered as the cause of this
disease. 1t has not been produced in
horses experimentally by means of
transmission or incubation from sick to
well horses. The pathologic findings
are not those of any known infectious
disease.
mo evidence has arisen to indicate
that in water alone is to be found the
cause of this disease. Its nature sug-
gests poison introduced from with
out The cause is associated with
molds and parasitic fungi growing on
grains and other vegetation. 1t &C.
CURED only among horses grazing in
pastures, fed upon lately cut, improp-
erly cured forage. One attack of the
disease does not immunize the subject
against a second attack. ProphylaXis
or preventive treatment. through the
exercise of proper care in feeding only
pure water, well cured forage and
grain in limited quantities during the
period of the outbreak is the only
proven means of dealing with the dis
ease. Where these precautions have
been carefully needed this sickness
has ceased.
"a return of the disease is. in our
opinion. dependent upon the recur-
renee of climatic conditions similar to
those of the past season. That is. the
poisonous conditions in the pastures
and in the forage, is due to the Excess
sive moisture and humidity accom-
panied by high temperatures. These
climatic conditions are unusual to the
region at the season of the year when
this disease occurred. Whenever these
climatic conditions prevailed over
Kansas areas, usually dry that that
season. this forage poisoning occurred
among horses. The changes observed
in the microscopic examinations of the
brain and spinal cord indicate some
kind of an intoxication process and not
a disease caused by bacteria such as
meningitis or infantile paralysis.
Under the guise of the word vac
cine, commercial preparations. some
of which have proven to be positively
harmful, have been promulgated and
sold at large prices. Drugs and spe-
cities have proven practically worth.
less and in some cases positively harm
full"
During the month of June, according