Special report on diseases of cattleUnited States. Bureau of Animal Industry
Science
Special report on diseases of cattle
United States. Bureau of Animal Industry
Cattle -- Diseases
As additional precautions, no cow with a retained afterbirth or unhealthy
discharge from the womb should be left with the other cows. Such cows
doubtless infect their own udders and those of the cows next them by
lashing with the soiled tail. If milkers handle retained afterbirth or
vaginal discharge, or unhealthy wounds, or assist in a difficult and
protracted parturition, they should wash the hands and arms thoroughly with
soap and warm water and then rub them with the corrosive-sublimate
solution, or if not, at least with one of carbolic acid. Clothes stained
with such offensive products should be thoroughly washed.
The general treatment of contagious mammitis does not differ from that of
the simple form, except that antiseptics should be given by the mouth as
well as applied locally (hyposulphite of soda, one-half ounce daily).
COWPOX.
This is another form of contagious inflammation of the udder which does not
spread readily from animal to animal except by the hands of the milker. It
is held to occur spontaneously in the cow, but this is altogether
improbable, and so-called spontaneous cases are rather to be looked on as
instances in which the germs have been preserved dry in the buildings or
introduced in some unknown manner. It is not uncommon in the horse,
attacking the heels, the lips, or some other inoculated part of the body,
and is then easily transferred to the cow, if the same man grooms and
dresses the horse and milks the cow. It may also appear in the cow by
infection, more or less direct, from a person who has been successfully
vaccinated. Many believe that it is only a form of the smallpox of man
modified by passing through the system of cow or horse. It is, however,
unreasonable to suppose that this alleged modified smallpox could have been
transmitted from child to child (the most susceptible of the human race)
for 90 years, under all possible conditions, without once reverting to its
original type of smallpox. Chauveau's experiments on both cattle and horses
with the virus of smallpox and its inoculation back on the human subject go
far to show that in the climate of western Europe, at least, no such
transformation takes place. Smallpox remains smallpox and cowpox, cowpox.
Again, smallpox is communicable to a person who visits the patient in his
room but avoids touching him, while cowpox is never thus transferred
through the air unless deliberately diffused in the form of spray.
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