Common Diseases of Farm AnimalsCraig, Robert Alexander
Science
Common Diseases of Farm Animals
Craig, Robert Alexander
Veterinary medicine
In dogs the diagnosis is confirmed by a _microscopical examination_ of the
vagus ganglia and that portion of the brain known as Amnion's horn, and the
finding of Negri bodies in the nerve-cells. In case a person is bitten by a
dog, the animal should be confined until the disease is well advanced and
killed or allowed to die. The head should then be removed and forwarded to
the State laboratory, or wherever such examinations are made.
_The treatment_ is preventive. Wherever an outbreak of rabies occurs all
dogs should be confined on the owner's premises or muzzled. All dogs
running at large without muzzles should be promptly killed. A heavy tax on
dogs, and the killing of all dogs not wearing a license tag, would prevent
the heavy financial loss resulting from rabies, and the ravages of
wandering dogs in the United States. In countries where the muzzling of
dogs is enforced during the entire year, rabies is a rare disease.
FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE.--This is a highly contagious and infectious disease
of cattle, sheep, goats and swine. It is characterized by the eruption of
vesicles on the mucous membrane lining the mouth, the lips, between and
above the claws and in the region of the udder and perineum. Man may
contract the disease by caring for sick animals; or by drinking raw milk
from a sick cow. Babies are most susceptible to infection from milk.
Foot-and-mouth disease was introduced into eastern Europe from the steppes
of Prussia and Asia near the end of the eighteenth century. It was
introduced into England about 1839, and in 1870 into Canada through the
importation of cattle from England. From Canada the disease spread to the
United States. Very few animals were infected during the 1870 outbreak, and
the disease was quickly stamped out in both countries.
Europe has been unable to eradicate foot-and-mouth disease. The different
outbreaks that occur from time to time cause enormous financial loss. In
the United States outbreaks of the disease have occurred in the following
years: 1870, 1884, 1902-'03, 1908 and 1914-'15. In the first two outbreaks
very few cattle contracted the disease, and the infection was quickly
stamped out. The third and fourth outbreaks were more extensive, and it was
necessary to slaughter several thousand cattle and hogs in order to
eradicate the disease. The first four outbreaks occurred in the eastern
States, and the disease was prevented from spreading to the principal
live-stock centers of the country, and the leading stock-raising States by
slaughtering the diseased and exposed animals and by county and State
quarantines. Early in the 1914-'15 outbreak, the disease spread to the
Chicago Stock Yards, and from there, through shipments of cattle, to the
principal live-stock sections of the country. The financial loss resulting
from this outbreak has amounted to several million dollars. The Federal and
State authorities have always been successful in stamping out the disease
in the United States.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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