Text book of veterinary medicine, Volume 4 (of 5)Law, James
Science
Text book of veterinary medicine, Volume 4 (of 5)
Law, James
Veterinary medicine
5th. The affection failed to overstep any serious gap over which there
was no movement of equine animals. It prevailed in Victoria, B. C., in
July, but, owing to a strict quarantine on horses and mules, it failed
to reach Vancouver Island. It ravaged New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in
November but failed to reach Prince Edward Island which was then ice
bound and shut off from all traffic with the mainland. It ravaged Cuba
to which it was brought by American horses landed at Havana, but no
other West Indian island was attacked. Its southward course was finally
arrested at Central America, where horses are few and horse traffic
nearly unknown.
Every fact in connection with its eruption and progress agrees perfectly
with the hypothesis of transmission by contagion alone, and taken
altogether the history excludes all other causes from being anything
more than accessory. Before the days of modern bacteriology we had ample
proof that glanders, rabies, sheeppox, lung plague, and Rinderpest were
due to contagion alone as an essential cause, and so now we have the
same evidence concerning equine influenza.
_Other testimonies to Contagion._ Trasbot says the virulence is “almost
equal to that of Rinderpest or aphthous fever,” and adds “all
practitioners have become assured that the bringing of an affected
animal into a stable constantly introduces the malady to the others.”
Cadeac says “the diseased or infected animals are the main channel of
propagation of the malady” and again the disease is “essentially
infectious.” Friedberger and Fröhner are more definite—“influenza which
is as highly infectious as any other disease can be produced only by
infection.” Cadeac implies nearly as much in saying: “in all the
epizoötics that have invaded Paris, the disease has been carried into
the four quarters of France by horses bought in this city. In most
regiments the malady shows itself after the arrival of horses from
remounts where it was prevailing. At Sibourne it is through horses from
St. Jean d’Angely. At Lyons it is by a horse from Cæn. At Bourges the
source was not traced but it spread from the garrison to the whole
surrounding country. The Omnibus stables in the Rue d’Ulm were invaded
when a horse was introduced from Clichy where influenza raged.”
_Stables_ are fruitful sources of infection hence dealers’ horses and
horses travelling from place to place have long been objects of just
suspicion (Trasbot, etc.).
_Cars_ are often infected, and spread the disease widely. (Poucet,
Salle, Trasbot, etc.).
_Manure_ is especially dangerous. Trasbot gives a number of cases of the
infection of farms, by the manure taken from the Alfort Veterinary
College, and other infected stables in Paris. Friedberger conveyed the
disease experimentally in the manure.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account