Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-12-31
Work Toward the
Cure of a Dread
Cattle Disease

Orono, Me-, Dec. 3o-(SpeciaD .-Di-
rector Charles D. Woods of the Maine
Agricultural Experiment station here
has given out the following statement
concerning contagious abortion in
cows:
CONTAGIOUS abortion of cattle is
causing a greater loss to the dairy
men and cattle breeders of this coun-
| try than any other one thing, with the
possible exception of tuberculosis.
Many careful students of these dis
eases do not even except tuberculosis
1t has been estimated that the annual
loss to the United States from this
disease exceeds s50,00000o, and this
estimate is probably conservative. The
loss from this disease is by no means
! confined to the loss of the calf. On
the average, the lactation period fol-
lowing an abortion yields but little
more than half the amount OF milk
| which the COW would give after nor
NAL calving. Further, the partial or
even total sterility of COWS following
an epidemic of abortion in the herd is
one of the most serious consequences.
The Maine Agricultural Experiment
station has no funds which it can de-
vote to the study of this disease.
However, in view of its importance 1t
is desira Bile to review the present sta
tus of work which is being done else
where.
The disease is caused by bac-
| terium, the so-called Bacillus of Con
| A l,ic arign1
| first discovered by the Danish veteri-
marian, DIR. Bang, in 1886. Owing to
| the difficulty in growing this organ
! ism In the laboratory its presence was
not discovered in the United States I'M
| til the last few years. However. work
done at widely separated places shows
conclusively that this organism is
present in the United States and IS
| practically universally distributed. In
| fact there are few large dairy herds
which have not suffered more or less
from this disease.
This organism is transferred from
one COW to another in several ways.
1t is the prevailing opinion among
breeders that it is transmitted by the
| bull only. But this is by no means
true. In fact it is probable that the
bull plays a comparatively small part
| II, spreading this disease. Careful ex-
periments within the last few years
show conclusively that cows may be
| infected through the digestive tract.
Healthy cows in the same pasture or
| feed lot with infected cows or even In
| the same barn have many chances to
| take these germs into the mouth. The
germs find their way from the stom-
ach and intestines into the blood and
| finally reach the uterus where they
cause an inflammation resulting in the
death Of the young calf. All the re-
suits of recent experiments go to show
| that this Is the most important method
of transmission.
Within the last two years a great
deal of progress has been made in the
methods of diagnosis of this disease.
There are no external symptoms by
which one can distinguish infected
from healthy cows Methods have now
been perfected by which it is possible
from the examination Of small
amount Of blood from each cow to tell
which have been infected and which
have not These methods, however,
are quite complicated and the blood
samples must be sent to properly