The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1915-03-04

artificially, and recover the same Or
ganism from the experimental cases.
Their findings have since been SUBJ
stantiated by many European observ-
ers and particularly by McFadyean
and Stockman of England.
That the bacillus abortus of Bang is
capable of producing abortion expert
mentally in cattle, sheep, swine, goats,
mares, guinea pigs and rabbits, has
been satisfactorily proven.
Probably the most important and
comprehensive facts which have been
demonstrated in connection with this
disease are the discovery that the
abortion bacillus is eliminated with
the milk of affected cows and, second
ly, that this bacillus is found in the
tonsils of children, presumably as
result Of drinking such affected milk.
Susceptibility.
Cows of all ages are more or less
susceptible, but animals in their first
and second pregnancies are more apt
to abort, if exposed, that at any other
time.
Cows that have aborted once may
abort the second time, but abortion in
the same cow more than twice is an
unusual occurrence.
Heifers from aborting mothers may
be less susceptible than those born to
non-infected dams; in fact Williams
reports that in one herd under obser-
walton such animals have shown a
pronounced resistance to infection.
Agents of Dissemination.
Even before the discovery Of the
specific germ, various observers had
recognized the infective character of
the afterbirth, fetus, and vaginal dis
charges of aborting animals, in fact
that the specific agent has now been
from the gastro-intestinal
tract, and at times from the liver and
general circulation of the aborted fe-
tus, places the product of conception
prominently on the list.
Milk has recently been placed upon
the list of agencies by which the in
fective material is eliminated from the
body.
Thus the stall, litter, bedding, feed
and water, stockyards and pastures,
and their clothing, and var
ious other objects, may become con-
taminated and thereby act as dissent
majors of the disease in other animals.
Natural Mode of Infection.
This is an important phase Of the
disease and has resulted in many
and many different opin-
ions.
Artifcially, the disease can be pro-
duced by introducing the virus into
the body by way of the vagina and the
digestive tract, and by intravenous
and simultaneous NEGOTIATIONS.
With the first two methods we are
mainly interested, as the two latter
are purely experimental.
McFadyean and Stockman, and to a
lesser extent, Bang, consider the ali
mentary canal the chief avenue of in
lection and submit experimental evil
dence of animals so exposed that have
aborted, but they have not submitted
evidence that the other means of in
lection were eliminated.
The infection through the digestive
tract assumes that the bacillus enters
the blood and finally enters the uterus,
but the supposed pathway by which
the infection reaches the utero-chor-
onic space is not stated.
Under this argument the infection
must pass from the blood, either thru
the placental filter or thru the inter-
cotyledonal mucosa.
To the argument that the infection
enters thru the placental filter is op-
posed the size of the Bang organism,
which is about that of the bacillus of
tuberculosis, an organism which is
not known to pass thru the placental
filter.
If the infection be introduced into
the blood to escape into the utero-
choronic space thru the inter-cotyle-
donal mucosa, we would expect the in
vasion to occur and any and perhaps
many points, but a study of recorded
LESSONS denies this.
The cervix, or neck, of the uterus
is of interest in consideration Of some
of the phenomena of contagious abor-
ton as we'll as sterility. In the non
pregnant animal it is three to six
inches long and one to three inches in
diameter, its walls are thick, dense
and resistant.
tortuous channel, affording passage
tortuous channel, aflording passage
between the vaginal and uterine cav
tiles. ~.''..'
In the healthy nOn-preqnant cow,