The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1914-08-20

3 o o ~~~~~~~~~%@~~~~ 8 8 . . 9 Q
u IGHEAD is a condition affecting
p sheep, and is characterized by a
sudden swelling of the head and
ears. There is present in the swelled
portions of the head a straw -colored
serum which often drips from the
parts. The affected tissues present a
gelatinous appearance, and the swell
ing is often so severe that the animal s
vision is partially or entirely obscured.
This, with a severe irritation of the
head, causes the animal to be extremely
restless and to walk aimlessly about un-
til exhausted. This affection has not
been found to be transmissible to other
sheep or to experimental animals.
Bighead has been observed by sheep
men for upwards of 80 years. Each
6oekmaster has different theory re-
garding its cause, and many supersti-
tious ideas are in existence. The affec-
tion is not very widely distributed. 1t
has been reported and found in Utah
and the surrounding States, the greatest
losses occurring in Southern and Central
Utah, Southern Idaho, Eastern Nevada
and Western and Southern Wyoming.
Bighead has not been described in
other countries, so far as the author has
been able to find, but fagopyrism (or
buckwheat poisoning), which is similar
in many respects to bighead, has been
described by number of European
authors.
Causes of Bighead.
The definite cause of bighead is not
known, though it seems that climatic
conditions have much to do with its ap-
pearance. Sheep are usually affected
during the spring and early summer
ranges, more commonly before shearing.
Bighead seems to be most prevalent
after cold or stormy night when the
day following turns hot with sunshine
and the sheep are driven fast in the hot
sun, and where they are compelled to in
hale considerable alkali dust. 1t affects
males and females alike, thought it is
seldom seen in young lambs. This con-
dition seems to affect sheep in much the
same way as man is affected by poison
ivy. The disease does not seem to be
transmissible from one sheep to another
or to other animals. All experiments
with TRANSMISSION of blood or injection
of serum from the affected sheep to well
ones were without results.
Thinking that probably it was due to
some of the forage plants on which the
affected sheep had existed some time
prior to the outbreak, number Of them
were gathered and fed experimntally to
the sheep, then the animals we're exposed
in much the same way as bands are
driven over the country where they con
tract this trouble, but in no ease was
bighead produced. Buckwheat was also
fed in both the green and the dry state
to number Of experimental sheep for
different periods of time, then they
were exposed to the hot sun, but none
of the conditions described by the Euro
pean writers were produced.
Plants Eaten by Sheep.
There are number Of forage plants
which belong to the buckwheat family
that sheep eat on the resert and on diff
ferent parts of the trail, and it could be
possible that this trouble may come
from that source, but the author has
been unable to locate it; nor was he
able to find any kind Of germ re-
sponsible for the malady. Sheep with
bighead were locked up with healthy
ones and compelled to eat and drink
with them-in fact, they were exposed
in every way possible, even inoculated
with all of the body fluids, but in nc
instance was the disease transmitted
from an affected to healthy sheep.
1t has been stated by many that thu
impoverished condition Of many Of tht
range sheep brought on bighead, but il
the writer's experience sheep that wer'
well nourishet were attacked as readily
- the extremely poor ones. 1t is posi-
bio that there is something pertainin,
to the lymph drainage from the head o.
the sheep that we do not understand