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
=Anthrax in Swine.= _Symptoms._ Swine are, on the whole, less
susceptible than cattle, and on the strength of his laboratory
experiments Pasteur denied their susceptibility. The mistake gained
a wide acceptance, yet experienced practitioners knew that they were
occasionally infected by eating the carcasses or droppings of
anthrax cattle. I had seen a number of swine die in common with
cattle in an outbreak at Swineshead, Lincolnshire, in 1863, and a
like occurrence took place in East Lothian, and similar cases are
reported by McFadyean, Trombitas and Von Ratz, while Crookshank and
Perroncito have respectively inoculated the pig with success. In my
experience at East Lothian a shepherd skinned an anthrax bullock and
then castrated several litters of pigs, all of which died of
anthrax. Much doubtless depends on the condition of the animal as
regards food (flesh or vegetable), the presence of lactic or other
organic acid, the coincidence of infection with anthrax bacillus and
one of those conditions, which habitually enhances its virulence.
There may be named venesection (Rodet) or its counterpart anæmia,
the presence in the blood of inert powders—precipitates (Bardach),
fatigue—sarco-lactic acid (Charrin and Roger), starvation—dyspepsia
(Canalis and Morpurgo), privation of water (Pernice and Alessi), the
products of previous or coincident illness (Galtier).
The pig, infected by ingestion, suffers especially from pharyngeal and
intestinal anthrax. There is marked swelling of the throat with
stiffness, dysphagia, champing of the jaws, salivation, frothing about
the lips tinged with blood, dark, violet discoloration or ulceration of
the fauces and tonsils, retching, vomiting, hoarseness of grunt,
extension of the swelling to the face, with petechial spots and patches,
diarrhœa with frothy or bloody fæces, great muscular weakness, a
disposition to lie, it may be actual paraplegia, with the usual
accompaniments of hyperthermia, constitutional disorder, cyanosed, or
dusky brown, reddish or yellowish mucosæ, and the black, incoagulable
blood, with destruction of the red globules.
=Anthrax in Dogs.= _Symptoms._ In the outbreak at Swineshead,
Lincolnshire, in which the pigs suffered, one shepherd dog contracted
the disease from eating the carcasses. It took the pharyngeal and
intestinal form, with dysphagia, vomiting, bloody diarrhœa and high
fever. Straus found that young puppies were very susceptible and old
dogs refractory probably because of flesh diet and exposure. The
excision of the spleen encreased the susceptibility to 76 per cent.
instead of 20 per cent. (Bardach). Cornevin saw 5 dogs die the same
night out of 7 that ate from an anthrax carcass. Much depends on the
previous exposure and existing condition of the dog.
_Cats_ have been observed to suffer under similar conditions. At Geneseo
in 1877 I found that a cat and three young horses died from licking the
blood from a stoneboat on which an anthrax hide had been carried.
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