The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1923-11-01
GOATS
TO CHECK FEVER
TWENTY MOUNTAIN GOATS IN
BITTER ROOT COUNTRY
TO BE KILLED
Thought to be Carriers of the Dread
Spotted Fever Germs; Few Killings
Will Drive Goats Into Mountain
Businesses.

} With permission having been re
ceived to Stay only 20 Rocky Noun
tain goats in the Bitter Root noun
tains, health authorities of the state
believe that they will be able to make
some Roadway in their efforts to pro
tect residents of the valley from the
menace of spotted fever that origin
ates in the Bitter Root heights. Ac.
cording to DR.. w. j. Butler, state
veterinarian and member of the
state board of entomology, it probab-
ly will be necessary to kill only a
few goats in strategic places in the
foothills between the valley and the
mountains to make them so wild they
will take refuge in the crags and
cliffs of the higher sections. If the
goats can be kept out of the foothills
the contact between the infected
wood tick and civilization will be
broken, he believes and it will not be
a matter of great concern as to how
many ticks remain in the higher and
more inaccessible places.
While the health authorities would
have preferred to have been permit
ted to use their discretion in the mat
ter of Staying goats and to have been
given the right to kill n of these
animals whenever it seemed neces-
sary in the fight to say human life,
they are not discouraged by the fact
that the number of animals which can
be shot is limited to a score, DR..
Butler states. In either event, he
believes, it may be a matter of five
to seven years to determine what
Roadway is being made against the
fever spreading insect for the average
cycle of life of the tick is three years
and if deprived of blood the insect
can wait four years and remain alive.
Without engorging, DR.. Butler
states, the wood tick cannot lay eggs
the fever virus of which it is the
cannot become sufficiently
to transmit the fever. One
remarkable thing has been learned
observation of the tick and
hat is, the state veterinarian de-
,lares, the ticks live for as long as
our years while waiting for a host,
Without taking food of any kind.
The fact that the tick must en-
before the virus it carries is
# sufficient strength to give spotted
ever, even when the tick is infected, &.
5 a factor in favor of the human be- :
ng on whom the tick becomes i'm
edded for if the tick is removed
yithin about two hours there is be- :
to be little danger of fever. :
In answer to questions asked of :
he health authorities as to why the :
:oat should be killed and yet domes- :
ic animals permitted to roam the :
alley, DR.. Butler declared that sta :
istics show that less than two per :
emit of the cases of infection have :
ONE from the valley. The infection =
GEMS to be virulent only when it is /
Ontracted in the foothills or in the I
Ugh mountains.
Although domestic animals, which
not frequent the cliffs and rocky
levations of the mountains, should
AIRY ticks there is little danger of =
ne fever being spread in this way,
If. Butler believes, because stock is
out of this section only after
lspection between March 1 and July
5 of each year, the fever season, and r
ne stock is available so that it may
Q "hand picked" at any time. If the
tate authorities could catch the
fountain goats and pick the ticks
IF them it would not be necessary
} slaughter them, he said, but the
purpose will be served If they
be driven out of the low places y
that they will not be the means !"
{ bringing the ticks down to where =
can come in contact with human .
y
Rodents, and smaller animals such u
coyotes, rabbits and wolves, bring L
Ie ticks down from the peaks to the !,
'othills, DR.. Butler holds, but are y
1T likely to bring them so great a -
stance if the goats can be kept up y
the high places. II
Domestic sheep do not find favor a
tn the tick as the oily, thick wool -
the tame sheep is believed to a
lother the tick and then, too, where 90
eep abound in numbers the under - =
ush is trampled down and the grass u
'pt closely cropped. Unless there is "
ush and tall grass the warm sun "
a summer day drives the ticks into p'
e ground. :.
Ticks also find it difficult to live Oil
lere there is farming for the cult as
ton of ground brings him out of "
before the proper time ~
d lays him open to the sun. w
DR.. r. r. Parker of the federal ~
alth service is authority for the ~
that as many as 500 ticks W.
We been found on one goat which en
Q to the fact that a female tick 10
lay as many as 5000 eggs ar
ompts him to estimate that one 81
at may feed sufficient female ticks Ia
result in 100000 offspring. W.
- tn