Variola appears to be rather more frequent in swine than in goats.
Ficanus as quoted by Joubert saw it in 1567, contracted it was supposed
from smallpox patients. It was noted by Ramazini in 1690, by Stegman in
1697, and later by Gerlach and others. In 1891 517 cases were reported
in Hungary. It is said to be derived from man by the use of bed straw
for litter and from sheep by occupying the same stall. It can be
transmitted experimentally from pig to pig, from pigs to goats, and from
goats back to pigs (Gerlach). It is also claimed to pass from the pig to
man (Freidberger and Fröhner). Young pigs are especially subject to it
and one attack confers immunity for the future.
_Symptoms._ After a febrile condition of variable length, but usually of
a high intensity, red spots appear on the head, neck, chest, belly or
inside the arms and thighs, at first like flea bites, but passing
through the stage of papule to become vesicular on the sixth day. About
the ninth or tenth day they become purulent, and in two or three days
more a black, concave, circular crust has formed which is soon detached.
The eruption may be _local_ or _general_, _discrete_ or _confluent_ and
the issue of the case will depend much on this character. In exceptional
cases the eruption invades the mouth, eye, throat, stomach, or
intestines. Croker notes the accompaniment of a fatal lobular catarrhal
pneumonia.
It must be carefully distinguished from urticaria, eczema, and eruptions
due to pustulating irritants.
_Treatment_ is in the main the same as for sheep, care being taken to
secure perfect cleanliness, pure air, dry clean litter, easily digested
food, and protection from crowding, undue heat, cold or wet. Buttermilk
and other acidulous and diuretic drinks are recommended, and careful
attention to the state of the bowels throughout.
_Prevention_ is still more important, and better than any treatment
would be the most rigorous measures for its extinction along the lines
laid down for sheep pox. Whether the infection has been derived from man
or sheep it must be looked on as eminently dangerous to the class of
animal from which it originated, and every available means used for its
extinction.