Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-13

DR.. Emmett w. Price Of the United
States Department of Agriculture, in
recent article written for the Veteri-
nary Alumni Quarterly, says that dogs
and cats are attacked by more species
Of parasites than most animals.
These favorite household pets, DR..
Price declares. have been reported as
sites, some of which affect both and
some only one of the animals.
It is an alarming picture which the
scientist draws, but one which will
scarcely induce lovers of dogs and cats
to give up their favorite animals.
1t should, however, cause all owners
Of dogs and cats to exercise every
legitimate precaution in handling and
caring for their pets.
aside from the high mortality in
dogs due to parasitic infestation," DR..
Price says, there are other points which
should not be minimized. Some of the
species which occur in dogs may also
infest man, either in their adult or
larval stages, such infeStations fire.
quently proving fatal"
DR.. Price states that several varieties
Of heas are known to be carriers of
bubonic plague, and that one of the
tapewormS OF man passes one stage
OF its life cycle in dogs. F1eaS are also
believed to be carriers of infantile Kala-
aZar, q tropical protozoon disease. The
dog also is infested by a lung huke,
which may be identical with the species
causing fatal illness in man.
The present-day practice Of shipping
dogs from one part of the country to
another for shows or for competition
in field trials affords an excellent OPP
portunity for the spread Of canine
parasites, DR.. Price adds. For some of
the parasitic infestations Of dogs and
cats, veterinary science has developed
effective remedies. For many, how
ever, no remedy is known which will kill
the parasite without killing the host
as well.
These observations by a man who has
made a careful. study of such things
should give pause to the average dog
or cat owner.
The lover OF pets will not kill his
animal to get at the pest in him, for
the remedy would be worse than the
disease, but at least he may take O
bit Of care for himself.
At this season of the year, when the
so-called dog and cat" flea is at its
worst, every home owner of cat or dog
should take every possible precaution to
rid both pet and house of the insects.
Through some strange freak OF
hdtuLC t4lC 11CdS dtC LCBAId CQ
a laughing matter. but any one who is
sensitive to their bites knows that they
| constitute very serious Summer
problem.
Perhaps the tendency of the average
person to laugh when told about flea
bites by another is an inheritance Of
our European ancestors. Over there
| the human flea is the human flea, as
such, but over here that type Of flea
does not exist.
The so-called European human flea"
is replaced in this country by the dog
and cat fiea," a distinct variety,
identical on both animals, and one
which not only may, but does. infest
human beings.
You will sometimes hear one Of these
all-knowing persons. who exists in
every stratum of society, loudly declar-
ing that "feas will not leave a dog for
| q human being"
Fleas not only will and do leave dogs
and cats to make their home on hu-
man beings, but sometimes they seem
to display a particular perversity in do
| ing it.