Synonyms. Definition: infectious fever of polygastrics, with sudden
onset, violent progress, high mortality, congestions of mucosæ,
petechiæ, concretions on buccal and vulvar mucosæ and on skin,
erosions of gastro-intestinal mucosæ, and pulmonary interlobular
emphysema. Historic notes: ancient—China, Hindoostan, Steppes; in
middle ages—Europe, Britain; recent—Europe, England (1714 and 1740),
Scotland (1770), Central Europe (1796–1816), Southern Europe (1827),
Germany (1830–1), Egypt (1841), Britain (1865), France (1870–1), S.
Africa (1881), Abyssinia (1890), Japan (1892), The Phillipines
(1898–9). Animals susceptible: ruminants, peccary, (swine?).
Bacteriology: minute corpuscles in cell nucleus (Semmer, etc.), which
are held back by Berkefeld and Chamberland filter. Accessory causes:
such as favor preservation, multiplication and diffusion of germ.
Susceptibility varies with previous exposure of the race. Immunity
after one attack. All liquids and secretions of the sick are virulent;
also manure, hay, straw, dust, stables, troughs, cars, boats, loading
banks, yards, milk, flesh, fat, sausage cases, hairs, horn, hoofs,
wool, bristles, hides, bones, halters, harness, shafts, poles, goads,
boots, clothes, feet (animals), wheels, runners, vermin, wild animals.
Virulence lost in drying. Manure preserves for weeks. Lost at zero,
and at 131° F. Lesions: congestion, petechiæ, hæmorrhages and erosions
on fourth stomach, small intestine, rectum, vagina and mouth,
emaciation, sunken eyes, diarrhœa, wart-like epidermic elevations,
concretions on mouth; conical papillæ dark, like port wine; petechiæ
and extravasations in subderma and submucosa; swollen intestinal
glands; spleen normal; liver, pale, soft; kidneys swollen, congested,
petechiated, softened; lungs with spots of congestion and
extravasation and emphysema: petechiæ on heart and pericardium: blood
has excess of fibrine and leucocytes, black. Incubation 2 to 9 days.
Symptoms; hyperthermia (104° to 108° F.), white epithelial concretions
on gums, followed by abrasions, congestion of visible mucosæ,
weariness, debility, thirst, constipation followed by diarrhœa, tender
loins, drooping head and ears, weeping eyes, grinding teeth, rapid
pulse, expiration with arrest and click, suppression of milk, relaxed
sphincters. May become aggressive or soporific. Diagnosis: by rapid
and deadly progress, and manifest infection; from _malignant catarrh_
by the active spread, numbers attacked, concretions on mouth, and
known exposure; from _thrush_ by the high fever, contagion to old as
well as young, and severe abdominal symptoms; from _aphthous fever_ by
the high temperature, the absence of distinct vesicles on mouth, teats
and feet, by the comparative immunity of swine, and by its high
mortality; from _dysentery_, by the early hyperthermia, the
concretions in the mouth, by rapid general extension irrespective of
filth and crowding, and by the implication of stomachs and small
intestines, rather than the large; from _gastro-enteritis_, due to
chemical irritants, by the lack of such manifest cause, and its rapid
progress from herd to herd; from _anthrax_, by its rapid spread beyond
an anthrax locality, the buccal and skin concretions and
desquamations, by the insusceptibility of horse, dog, and rodent, by
the absence of splenic enlargement or incoagulable blood. In sheep:
mortality in Steppes, 30 to 50 per cent.; in new countries 90 to 95
per cent. Treatment: to be condemned where its permanence is not
accepted. Serum-therapy: blood serum of immunized animal subcutem.
Prevention by immunization: mixture of virus and bile; inject with
highly immunized and defibrinated blood, and expose to the sick, only
admissible where extinction is despaired of. Exclusion: exclude all
ruminants and their products which come from suspected lands, or admit
on certificate and quarantine, or for slaughter only. Extinctions:
Trace and kill all ruminants that come in proximity to every infected
animal, or to any place or thing where it has been, disinfect
thoroughly the carcasses, products, places and things, register all
ruminants around a wide area of possible infection, make necropsy in
every case of death, appraise and sacrifice any herd showing the
infection. Each seaboard state should provide for instant action by
the Federal Government. Question of extinction in the Philippines.
_Synonyms._ Pestis Bovina, Rinderpest, Magenseuche, Viehpest,
Viehseuche, Pockenseuche (German). Pest Bovine, Typhus Contagieuse,
Typhus du gros Betail (French). Tifo Bovino (Italian). Dzuma (Polish).
Tchouma Reina (Russian). Low peng (belly sickness, China). Pushima
(Hind., Burma.).
_Definition._ A contagious fever of polygastric mammals (bovine, ovine,
caprine, cervine, exceptionally porcine), characterized by sudden
invasion, rapid advance, hyperthermia, great constitutional disorder,
congestion and blood extravasations of the mucosæ generally, but
especially of the gastric and intestinal, epithelial and epidermic
hypertrophy in the form of white concretions or warty-like masses on the
mouth, (vulva), and skin, followed by erosions, by pulmonary,
interlobular emphysema, by a catching, arrested inspiration, followed by
an expiratory moan, and by an early and very high mortality.
_Historic Notes._ As the most rapidly developing and deadly of the
cattle plagues, this attracted the greatest attention of people in
earlier times, and thus its invasions and ravages can be more
satisfactorily identified, than those of the tardier and somewhat less
deadly lung plague which usually followed in its wake.
Sanctus Severus and Vegetius Renatus indicate its advent into Western
Asia on the borders of the Caspian and Black Seas, coincident with the
irruption of the Mongols in the first Christian century. It still
prevails in China and adjoining countries, including Hindoostan, and
since that date the Steppes near the Black and Caspian Seas have been
looked on as the perennial home of the plague. Before 376, A. D., the
chronicles of epizoötics in Europe suggest anthrax affections which
prevailed widely in man and beast, and since that time the special
plagues of cattle come into prominence. At this date the Huns began a
great onward movement from the region of the Caspian and Black seas into
Dacia (Hungary), Northern Italy, Germany and Gaul, and this was the
occasion for a general diffusion of Rinderpest over these countries.
After this date cattle plague spread widely on the occasion of any great
European war in which the eastern nations were involved or which was so
general or continued as to draw upon Eastern Europe for the supply of
the commisariat parks. One great epizoötic culminated in 810 after the
wars of Charlemagne; one occurred in 820 in connection with invasion of
Hungary by the Franco-German army; one in 1223 to 1225 laid waste
Central Europe and is said to have reached Great Britain; in 1233–4 it
again gained a wide extension following the invasion by hosts of Mongols
from Siberia; great extensions are recorded in Italy in 1616 and 1625
during the 30 years’ war; in 1709 Charles XII wintered with his army in
the Ukraine and his return was followed by the most disastrous mortality
ever seen in Europe and which lasted from 1710 to 1717. This reached
England in 1714 and was there stamped out by killing and burning the
sick, disinfecting the buildings and closing up the infected pastures.
Paulet claims that Europe lost 1,500,000 head of cattle in the first
three years of this invasion. It continued more or less prevalent in the
eastern countries of Europe, and, following the course of war, entered
Italy in 1735, and extended westward. Again in 1740 in connection with
the war of the Austrian Succession it extended westward invading the
Western Countries from France to Denmark inclusive, and once more
extended into England, where it prevailed until 1756 and caused an
unprecedented destruction. It was finally stamped out as on the previous
invasion. During this invasion Europe lost 3,000,000 head of cattle
(Delafond). In 1770 another invasion of Great Britain occurred through
the landing of infected Dutch hay at Portsoy, N. B., but this was
quickly suppressed by the destruction of every bovine animal in the
infected herds, and the thorough disinfection of premises, supplemented
by a daily scrutiny of all cattle within a radius of 18 miles. In the
second half of the 18th century cattle plague prevailed more or less
generally in all Continental Europe, except Norway, Sweden and the
Spanish peninsula, into which no cattle were imported, and carried off
200,000,000 head of cattle (Freidberger and Fröhner). In 1796 to 1816
the cattle plague followed the marches and countermarches of the various
armies in connection with the French revolution and the Napoleonic wars,
causing unheard of losses throughout Europe. In 1827 it spread widely in
connection with the war of independence in Greece, and again in 1830–1 a
wide extension occurred in connection with the Polish revolution. In
1844 Russia lost 1,000,000 head of cattle. In 1841 a shipment of
Roumanian and Anatolian cattle to Alexandria, Egypt, carried the plague
and in two years upwards of 350,000 head of Egyptian cattle perished,
only a few being left. From this date the great development of
manufactures in the Western European nations, and especially in Great
Britain, the consequent increasing demand for beef, and the inauguration
of rapid transit from Eastern Europe by steamer and rail, introduced an
era of the extension of the cattle plague by commerce rather than war,
and Röll gives the losses in Austria alone in 1847 to 1864 at 500,000
head. In 1865 a cargo of cattle from Revel on the Baltic, landed the
infection at Hull, whence it speedily extended over the entire country,
and prevailed for 18 months, but was stamped out by vigorous measures of
destruction and disinfection. In all 279,023 head were reported attacked
of which 233,629 died or were killed and 40,165 recovered. In 1865 the
plague was once more imported into Egypt, this time from the Danubian
Principalities. A wide extension took place in the parks of the French
and German armies in the war of 1870–1, as many as 43 departments in
France having suffered. In 1872 it was imported from Russia into Great
Britain but was speedily extirpated, and again in 1877 from Germany when
it spread somewhat more widely but was easily suppressed. In 1881 it was
introduced into S. Africa in Asiatic cattle during the war in the
Transvaal and coming after the long continued prevalence of lung plague
it threatened the cattle interests with ruin. In 1890 it reached
Abyssinia by cattle sent for the supply of the Italian Army. In 1892
Japan suffered through importation from the main land. The latest
extension of cattle plague was in 1898–9 into the Phillipines in the
shipments of Asiatic cattle sent for the supply of the American army,
and there as elsewhere in unfenced countries it is proving the cause of
disastrous losses.
_Animals Susceptible._ In spite of its name—cattle plague,
Rinderpest—this affection is not like lung plague peculiar to bovine
animals. Yet bovine animals are by far the most susceptible, by them it
is mainly propagated, and upon them comes the greatest mortality.
Infection, however, extends to all other ruminants,—sheep, goats, deer,
elk, antelopes, gazelles, aurochs, yaks, camels, dromedaries, buffaloes,
etc. Swine which show a pouch on the left sac of the stomach show a
certain susceptibility, it killed the peccaries in the Jardin des
Plants, Paris, and Viseur in France and Pluning in Sumatra, claim to
have seen cases in the domestic pig. The horse, dog, rabbit, bird, and
man are immune.
_Bacteriology._ In a disease with such destructive changes in blood and
tissues, bacteria are found, almost of necessity, in the seats of the
lesions and even in the blood. No constant microörganism has, however,
been isolated, cultivated in artificial cultures, and successfully
inoculated on other and susceptible animals. Saweljeff isolated
sporulating motile bacilli which break up into micrococci and
streptococci, with the cultures of these on agar he produced what he
believed to be cattle plague. Metchnikoff found a short bacillus with
rounded ends, forming cocci and leptothrix-like threads, non-liquefying,
and producing cattle plague in calves. Sacharow found a bacillus 0.25μ
to 1.5μ long and Tokishige a very small short bacillus the cultures of
which produced rinderpest in cattle. It would seem as if here as in the
case of lung plague, the experimenters had retained the real but
invisible pathogenic agent in what they took for pure cultures. Semmer
attributes the disease to fine corpuscles which have so far eluded
current methods of staining and cultivation, and that they exist in the
number of from one to six in the enlarged cell nucleus. Nicolle and Adel
Bey sustain this position, having found that the unseen virulent germ
passed through the more open and thinner Berkefeld filter, but failed to
traverse the denser Berkefeld and Chamberland porcelain filters even
when favored by a somewhat higher temperature. As this filtration
usually removes the germ and renders the liquid noninfecting they hold
that the real germ is almost certainly intraleucocytic. When in
exceptional cases a few pass through the filter it is held to be only
such as were free in the liquid, and these are usually so small in
number, that inoculation with the filtrate does not kill, nor always
produce appreciable symptoms, but only immunity.
_Accessory Causes._ The essential cause being the germ, accessory causes
are of necessity such as contribute to the preservation of that microbe
and its introduction into the systems of susceptible animals.
_Susceptibility_ has a powerful influence even in races habitually
subject to rinderpest. The highest susceptibility inheres in cattle, and
yet the surviving cattle of the Steppe race, which has been exposed to
the infection for centuries, mostly recover from the plague, while fresh
cattle imported into the Steppes perish almost without exception. Sheep
and goats contract the disease but it is more severe and deadly in the
latter than in the former animal. Both, however, can carry the infection
back to the bovine animal, as can also the whole group of ruminants. The
Guinea pig contracts the affection by inoculation and may thus become an
indirect means of conveying infection from ox to ox.
_Immunity_ follows a first attack. Calves born of cows that passed
through cattle plague during the last months of gestation are usually
immune.
_Exposure to infection_ arises in various ways. All of the secretions of
the diseased animal are apparently infecting, and the virus possesses
great vitality, so that the channels of infection are almost endless. It
is carried in the manure, washed on in streams, and drains, dried up on
hay, straw, feathers and other light objects, or in dust, and blown
about by the winds, left in stables, in feeding and watering troughs, in
railroad cars, steamboats, ferry boats, loading banks and yards, it is
carried in the fresh milk, flesh, fat, sausage cases, hairs, hoofs,
horns, wool and bristles, in hides and bones, in halters and harness, on
wagon shafts and poles, on goads, on boots and clothes of men, and the
feet of dogs, birds and other animals, on the wheels of vehicles, the
runners of sleighs, and by vermin and wild animals. The various infected
products, however, soon lose their virulence after drying. Galtier
assures us on the basis of the experiments of a Russian Commission, and
the experience of France, Belgium, England and other countries that
dried or salted hides can be introduced with perfect safety, and that
rendered suet, and dried skins, horns, bones and hairs are equally
harmless. On stalls, mangers and racks on the other hand, in an obscure
and still atmosphere, virulence may be preserved for three months
(Müller, Dieckerhoff). Again in litter and manure in the open air, and
even in yards and pastures it may retain its vitality for weeks
(Chauveau). The infection is destroyed by a temperature of zero, or 131°
F. (Semmer).
Whatever determines a movement of animals from an infected locality,
determines the extension of the plague, hence war, and commerce, the
food demands of a large and encreasing manufacturing population, the
inauguration of new routes of rapid transit by steam over land or sea
all contribute in their various ways to the extension of rinderpest.
_Lesions._ The most significant feature of the morbid lesions is their
concentration on the fourth stomach, small intestine, rectum, oral
cavity and vagina. The respiratory apparatus, eyes, skin, muscles, and
nervous system suffer to a lesser extent. If the case has gone on to a
fatal result there is usually marked emaciation, the natural openings
(mouth, nose, eyes, anus) are soiled with morbid discharges
(muco-purulent, feculent) the thighs smeared with offensive liquid
fæces, and the skin may be yellowish red, or dark, with a general scurfy
condition and distinct eruptions, especially of rounded wart-like
epidermic concretions on teats and udder. The eyes are deeply sunken,
the conjunctiva of a yellowish red, and the lips and muzzle dry, swollen
and it may be eroded.
The buccal mucosa is swollen, fœtid, with marked epithelial desquamation
and more or less deep and extended erosions on the upper and lower lips,
gums, dental pad of the upper jaw, cheeks, hard palate, and root of the
tongue. There may still be some of the characteristic, white, epithelial
concretions, or the epithelium may hang in loose semi-detached shreds,
or there may be extensive areas of abrasion, in transverse cracks or
broad patches, and finally extensive petechiæ. The conical papillæ on
the cheeks and dorsum of the tongue are especially liable to dark red
petechial discolorations.
The subderma and submucosa are also suffused with these congestions and
petechiæ, and like the epidermic layer show a marked increase of all
elements and of the cell nuclei.
The congestions, petechiæ, desquamations, erosions, are found on the
fauces, pharynx, gullet, nasal mucosa, trachea, and bronchia, to a
greater or less extent in different cases. There may be even limited
areas of superficial necrosis and even the formation of false membranes.
In the diseased epidermis and epithelium, in the necrotic plaques and
false membranes there are spores and mycelia of fungi and bacterial
growths.
In the rumen, reticulum and manifolds, the mucosa and submucosa usually
show limited areas of thickening and punctiform or arborescent
congestion with softening and even detachment of the epithelium.
The abomasum is profoundly involved, especially in the vicinity of the
pylorus. The folds are of a deep blood red or purple, or blackish, port
wine hue, or they may be in part brownish red, or when necrotic, slate
colored or mottled. The peptic glands are swollen, elevated and dilated,
and patches and spots of softened and loosened epithelium are easily
detached leaving a deep red surface with, it may be redder oozing
points. Ulcerous sores may show on the summits of the folds. The
contents are a viscous, fœtid grayish yellow, or reddish liquid, without
solid ingesta.
The small intestines show similar lesions, deep, dark red congestions,
most intense on the summits of the folds, softened, loosened, ragged
patches of epithelium, erosions, ulcers, circumscribed sloughs, casts of
the gut formed by desquamating epithelium, and congested, enlarged, and
prominent aguimated and solitary glands are more or less in evidence.
The contents are liquid and yellowish, grayish or reddish and fœtid.
Microscopically the distension of the glands, (of duodenum, Lieberkuhn
and Peyer), the proliferation and softening of the epithelium, the
enlargement of the nuclei of these and of the cells of the submucosa,
and the profusion of microörganisms are marked features.
In the cæcum and colon the lesions are usually less prominent, though
swelling, softening and desquamation of the epithelium often exists, and
points and patches of congestion, ecchymosis, and necrosis are not
uncommon, particularly in the cæcum, and may extend to the muscular
layer.
The terminal portion of the rectum is especially liable to marked
congestion and blood extravasation, with more or less desquamation and
erosion. The summits of the mucous folds are often of a dark red (port
wine) hue, and as this is everted and exposed in defecation or later by
the relaxation of the sphincter it becomes a marked lesion even in life.
The spleen is normal in strong contrast with anthrax in which similar
gross lesions are often found on the mucosæ and especially the rectum.
The liver is usually rather pale and soft, as in other cases of high
fever and centres of necrosis may be present. The gall bladder contains
a variable amount of thin bile. The pancreas is nearly or quite normal.
The lymph glands generally and especially those of the mesentery and
abomasum are congested, enlarged and softened.
The kidneys are congested, often petechiated, swollen and softened, with
centres of necrosis. The bladder, vagina and uterus show mucous
congestion, and thickening uniformly or in spots with muco-purulent
secretion.
The lungs show spots of hyperæmia, extravasation and at times
hepatization, but a very characteristic lesion is the interlobular
emphysema already referred to as connected with the abdominal pain and
the sudden arrest of inspiration. This gives a gross appearance of
marbling as in lung plague, only in this case the inflated interlobular
tissue is dark colored instead of white as in lung plague, and it
collapses at once when incised.
The encephalon, medulla and nerves present more or less hyperæmia and
even exudation.
The heart is usually pale except in the spots infiltrated by blood, but
it may be mottled with petechiæ and particularly on the endocardium. The
pericardial fluid is often red. The blood is at first little altered,
but later undergoes marked changes, notably an increase of fibrine (50
per cent.) and a decrease of water (as in Asiatic cholera). There is
marked leucocytosis, and distortion of the red globules. Before death it
becomes black and incoagulable.
The whole capillary system tends to be relaxed and over-distended
(congested).
_Incubation._ As seen in England the incubation was from four to five
days. Four to nine days are claimed by Galtier as the extremes, yet he
quotes incubations apparently as short as 12, 24, 36 and 48 hours
respectively. A source of fallacy rests in the prevalence of cattle
plague in the district and the possibility of infection through
unsuspected channels, before the recognized exposure. Something must
also be allowed for the greater susceptibility and the larger dose of
the poison which would tend to shorten the incubation. Thus the western
improved breeds, which suffer a mortality of 80 to 95 per cent. (Refik
Bey), and the winter season, when the virus is concentrated in small ill
ventilated houses, both tend to shorten the incubation. At the Albert
Veterinary College in 1865, Gerlach went direct from the infected stable
to the sound one, and in 48 hours several of the cattle in the latter
had a manifest rise of temperature. Roloff observed the elevation of
temperature in 36 hours after exposure, and Ranpach and Ravitsch as
early as 11 hours after the inoculation.
_Symptoms._ The earliest symptom is abrupt hyperthermia, (104° to 108°
F.). This is virtually pathognomonic in a herd or locality in which the
disease exists, or in suspected animals presumably coming from an
infected region. The temperature usually rises to its height on the
third or fourth day, and falls materially when other symptoms are
developed. In some instances death supervenes during the high
temperature, but in the majority the temperature goes below the normal
before death.
Often on the second day, or the third, white epithelial eruptions or
concretions appear on the inner sides of the lips, closely resembling
the eruption of muguet (thrush) and often showing also on the dental pad
of the upper jaw and along the gums of the lower. In connection with the
high temperature, which is absent in _thrush_, this symptom is virtually
pathognomic. These concretions are more or less abundant in different
cases, sometimes so slight as to be easily overlooked, and in other
cases encreasing up to the sixth day, and covering not only the lips,
dental pad and gums, but extending back over the hard palate, pharynx
and gullet. The concretion is as soft as cream cheese, easily detached
and leaves a bright red abrasion (not ulcerated) when removed.
By the fourth day there are dry or staring coat, sometimes rigors,
sometimes small, accelerated pulse (60 to 120 per minute), some loss of
appetite and impairment of rumination, dry muzzle, a general flush of
the mucosæ (mouth, vagina, rectum), and deep blood red discoloration of
many of the buccal papillæ. There is weariness or debility, the animal
remaining down much of the time, also marked thirst, constipation, the
fæces covered with mucus or blood, rapidly advancing emaciation, and
marked tenderness of the skin, especially of the loins. The head and
ears are drooped, saliva drivels, the mouth has a fœtid odor, the eyes
weep, and there may be grinding of the teeth. The skin may be hot and
the white and delicate parts (udder, teats) suffused by a deep blush.
The milk is decreased at first and finally completely dried up.
As the malady advances the belly becomes tender, the constipation is
succeeded by diarrhœa with much attendant rumbling, the fæces are at
first watery, greenish and acid, and later highly offensive, yellowish
brown or gray, and alkaline. These become encreasingly profuse, fœtid
and liquid, assuming perhaps a pea soup or rice water consistency before
death. The sphincter, at first firm and quickly responsive, finally
undergoes permanent relaxation, with constant exposure of the dark red
mucosa.
When the disease is fully established the respirations often become
highly characteristic. There is not the sudden catching and shortening
of the inspiration as in pleurisy, but a sudden closure of the glottis
with an audible clicking sound in the course of the expiration, and,
after a perceptible interval of holding of the breath, the expiration is
resumed with or without an accompanying moan. This phenomenon is so
characteristic as to be largely diagnostic. Whether it is due to
abdominal pain roused by the sudden forward movement of the diaphragm,
or to nervous disorder alone, it is a valuable symptom always to be
looked for. It further explains the interlobular emphysema usually met
with in the lungs in this disease.
In the more violent cases death supervenes from the sixth to the ninth
day, but in the indigenous breeds of Eastern Europe and Asia, which
represent a _survival of the fittest_, the great majority suffer mild
attacks and recover, and even in newly invaded countries, when the
invasion has spent itself and the less susceptible are largely attacked,
a fair proportion survive for a longer period and even recover.
In these milder, protracted, or surviving cases the skin symptoms are
likely to come out prominently. Chief among these and very constant at
the height of the disease is an abundant unctuous exudation which dries
on, forming a crust, comparable to what is seen on the skin in the
fevers of swine. At different points, notably on the teats, udder, inner
sides of the thighs, and arms, and on the neck, lips and face generally,
are epidermic concretions having a warty-like appearance, and
respectively seated on a very slightly swollen and congested point of
the dermis. The deeper layers of these epidermic concretions often
soften, so that they have been mistaken for vesicles and pustules, and
hence the error by which cattle plague was held to be but a malignant
form of cowpox. But these concretions are histologically distinct from
vesicles; there is no liquid exudate on the papillary layer raising the
epidermis in the form of a little sac, but merely an excessive
production of the cuticular cells with abnormally large nuclei, as
happens generally to cells in active proliferation, and an admixture
with those of spores and mycelium of fungi which have no special
significance.
Papules, vesicles and pustules may form on the diseased skin and are
described by different authors, but they are not characteristic of the
disease as are the epidermic proliferations.
In some rare cases nervous symptoms appear, the animal moves unsteadily
without proper sense of balance, it may toss its head and horns as if
attacking an enemy or it may sink into a somnolent or comatose
condition. Wasting advances rapidly, abortion occurs in pregnant
females, the weakness becomes extreme, the animal remains constantly
down, unable to rise, rests his head on the ground, breathes heavily and
stertorously and perishes with or without convulsions.
_Diagnosis in Cattle._ Individual symptoms of cattle plague may be found
in other diseases, but the aggregate symptoms, in a rapidly spreading
and fatal affection, and connected with a previous prevalence of the
disease in the country or district, or distinct evidence of the
introduction of infection should in every case obviate error. The chief
diagnostic symptoms are: a sudden, very marked rise of temperature; a
congestion or blush of the visible mucosæ generally (mouth, nose, vulva,
eyes); the formation of white curd-like epithelial concretions on the
inside of the lips, dental pad, or gums of the incisors; the formation
of red spots or petechiæ on the mucosæ; later the desquamation of the
softened epithelium with the formation of erosions or even ulcers; the
wart-like rounded epidermic eruptions on the skin; the great abdominal
tenderness with tucking up of the abdomen, and sudden arrest of the
expiration with a sharp clicking sound and moan; the fœtid, watery
diarrhœa and exposure of the dark red, congested and hæmorrhagic rectal
mucosa; the discharge from nose, mouth and eyes; the characteristic
fever odor; and the rapid progress of the disease from animal to animal,
and to a fatal issue. The rapidly advancing contagion and its fatality
in cattle, sheep and goats, together with the immunity of horses, dogs,
birds and human beings are important elements in diagnosis.
_Malignant Catarrh of Cattle_ is distinguished by the absence of active
contagion, one or two only in a herd being attacked; by the absence of
the curd-like concretions on lips, dental pad, and gums; by the
involving of the matrix of the frontal horns; by the great congestion,
swelling and discharge from the eyes; and by the impossibility or
improbability of the cattle plague contagion in the particular locality.
In localities where cattle plague actually prevails, it may sometimes be
impossible to distinguish at first, and then every precaution should be
taken to prevent diffusion of infection in case it should be cattle
plague.
_Thrush_ of the mouth, though causing an eruption of the same kind,
occurs in sucklings only, is unattended by fever, marked congestion, or
severe abdominal symptoms.
_Foot and Mouth Disease_, though equally contagious, and spreading with
the same rapidity, is easily distinguished by the very slight
hyperthermia, the vesicular character of the mouth and mammary eruption
(the cuticle being raised by an abundant clear straw-colored liquid
exudate); by the absence, in nearly all cases, of severe abdominal
disorder; by the all but constant vesiculation of the interdigital
space, and by its mild and non-fatal issue. Swine contract it as readily
as cattle and sheep, and horses, dogs, birds and men by inoculation.
_Dysentery_ is marked by the absence of the early, abrupt hyperthermia,
though the temperature may rise gradually to a high point; also of the
curd-like concretions on the buccal mucosa; by the earlier onset of the
fœtid diarrhœa, and by the indisposition to contagious diffusion apart
from the confined, foul, crowded buildings. The lesions are mainly on
the large intestines while in cattle plague they are on the small
intestines, fourth stomach, mouth, throat and skin.
_Gastro-enteritis and Stomatitis_ from corrosive agents and irritant
bacteria, can be traced to a definite local cause, do not extend beyond
the herd or animal poisoned, and usually occur where the possibility of
cattle plague can be excluded. There is usually an entire absence of the
white epithelial concretions, of the blush of the mucosæ generally, and
of the wart-like epidermic proliferation.
_Anthrax_ of the alimentary tract and rectum is distinguished by the
fact that it is largely an enzoötic disease, not spreading widely by
simple contact; that it is easily transmissible to horse, dog and man;
that it lacks the buccal epithelial concretions and characteristic
desquamations and the warty-like skin products; that it shows marked
enlargement and engorgement of the spleen; and that the blood and local
lesions contain the large sized, square ended anthrax bacillus.
_Diagnosis in Sheep and Goats._ This is based on the same phenomena as
in cattle; the sudden and exalted hyperthermia, blush or petechiæ of the
visible mucosæ, concretions on the lips, gums and skin, epiphora,
salivation, prostration, emaciation and diarrhœa. These last symptoms
are, however, less marked than in cattle and the mortality and
infectiousness are materially reduced. Pneumonic complications are much
more common in sheep.
_Mortality._ Among native cattle in the Steppes the mortality is 30 to
50 per cent. whereas elsewhere it is 90 to 95 per cent. Among sheep in
Austria it reached 60 to 66 per cent. Among camels in Asia and Africa
the fatality proved as high as among cattle. The Italian buffalo usually
recovered after seven days illness.
_Treatment._ The therapeutic treatment of cattle affected with cattle
plague has been eminently unsatisfactory and is so certain to become a
means of extension of the disease that it is legally prohibited in all
countries, in which the plague has not been allowed to become generally
diffused. Where it has become general in an unfenced country in which
accordingly its permanence is virtually ensured, it may be employed.
_Serum-therapy_ is advocated by Refik Bey. An animal is hyper-immunized
by repeated inoculations. His blood is then withdrawn and the serum
obtained from it is injected in a dose of 25cc., subcutem, at a
temperature of 104° F. The temperature is taken from the 3d to the 5th
day and if it does not at this time rise above normal the treatment is
ended. If still above normal a second dose of 25cc. is given. It is
claimed that the serum is harmless and may be safely given in a single
dose of 50cc. in case it is impossible to keep watch of the animal for
five days.
_Prevention by Immunization._ Semmer attempted this by inoculating
cattle with virus which had been weakened by heat or by passing it
through the body of a Guinea pig. The results were, however, far from
perfect and even in Russia the method failed of any wide acceptance.
Koch and Edington in South Africa practised extensive inoculations with
a mixture of the virus in bile. Still better results are claimed by
Danyoz, Bordet and Theiler in the Transvaal. These treated the animals
by injecting 25cc. to 50cc. of highly immunized blood, defibrinated, and
while the subjects were thus rendered temporarily insusceptible, they
were exposed to infection by contact with diseased animals.
As with serum-therapy, measures of this kind are only permissible in a
country in which cattle plague is already generally diffused, and where
there are no fences to limit the continued diffusion of the infection.
The preservation of the cattle artificially infected until highly
immunized, and again of the sick cattle requisite to give the disease to
the cattle operated on, and finally of these last through the mild
attacks that are to render them immune, affords an endless number of
loopholes for the escape of contagion which would forbid the adoption of
the method whenever the extinction of the disease is possible. When on
the other hand a disease is already spread universally in a country
destitute of fenced enclosures, in which herd mingles with herd in the
most perfect freedom, and where accordingly extinction is impossible,
the method is admissible and even commendable as a means of reducing the
otherwise ruinous mortality.
_Exclusion and Extinction of Cattle Plague._ For countries adjoining
lands infected with cattle plague such general measures as the following
are imperative: Prohibition of all imports of cattle, sheep and other
ruminants, camels and swine from such infected countries, also of the
fresh hides and other products of such animals, and of litter, fodder
and other things that may have been stored in the buildings with
infected cattle or otherwise soiled by them. Prohibition of imports of
all cattle or other ruminants from adjacent countries (which may be
plague-free), but which animals have been carried in undisinfected cars
or boats that had been in previous use for such species of animals drawn
from infected countries, or that had been passed through infected
countries, yards, buildings, loading banks, chutes, piers, gangways, or
other places, or furnished with fodder, halters or appliances from such
infected localities. In Eastern Europe the practice is to patrol the
frontiers day and night to prevent the smuggling of cattle through from
the infected country. Infected animals or herds, that it is sought to
pass, are turned back or slaughtered. Sheep from countries that had been
previously infected are often admitted on affidavit of the official
veterinarian in the country from which they come, that during the three
months before they left, there had been no contagious disease of cattle
nor sheep in the locality, and on the further condition that they shall
be slaughtered at the point of entry, or, if brought by rail, at the
nearest slaughter house approached by such railroad after entry. In
France, sheep, sent from Russia by sea, in French bottoms, certified as
above by the Russian authorities, and accompanied on the voyage by a
French veterinarian and certified sound by him, are allowed to circulate
freely after three days detention at the port of arrival without
evidence of disease.
In the United States the 90 days quarantine of cattle (dated from the
time of shipping at the foreign port), and the 15 days for sheep and
other ruminants under strict veterinary supervision is safe as regards
the importation of cattle plague in live animals. The greatest danger
will doubtless come from intercourse with the Phillipines, which were
infected with the cattle plague during the recent war. The greatest
possible precautions as regards the carriage of cattle on transports or
other ships, will be necessary. Not only should no Phillipine cattle be
imported, but no vessel, that has carried Phillipine cattle or sheep,
should be allowed to take on board home cattle nor other ruminants until
it has been thoroughly disinfected.
Cattle or sheep should be rejected when imported on ships which, on the
same voyage or a recent one, carried fresh hides or other fresh products
of animals, derived from a country in which rinderpest exists.
Hides that are thoroughly dried and salted, those that have been freely
exposed for one week to the sun and air, and such as have been treated
by active antiseptics, (caustic quicklime, mercuric chloride, lime
chloride, formalin, phenic acid, etc.), need be held under no such
restriction. The same applies to thoroughly dried, sunned and aired
hair, wool, hoofs, horns, bones and sinews. Rendered tallow is equally
safe.
_Extinction of Cattle Plague in a Country._ This should never be called
for on the American Continent. The introduction of such a deadly
disease, with such a short period of incubation, and such severe
symptoms and rapid course, would argue a most reprehensible
carelessness, which it is to be hoped will never be shown by the Federal
Bureau of Animal Industry. Yet under the stress of a great European war
this plague invariably overleaps the barriers successfully maintained in
time of peace, and the same has happened to the two great
English-speaking powers in connection with the wars in South Africa and
the Phillipines respectively and therefore it cannot be said that
importation is impossible under any possible circumstances.
In case of a recent importation the infection would be easily
controlled. Trace at once to its destination every bovine animal and
other ruminant that arrived on the infected vessel, and all that came in
contact with them since, or with the gangways, wharfs, streets,
highways, yards, houses, fields, cars, loading banks and other places
and things that might have been contaminated; stop all cattle and sheep
traffic or movement for a large area around each centre of possible
infection caused by such cattle; remorselessly kill every head of such
animals carried by such vessel, or that came in direct contact with
them; bury, burn, boil or dissolve in mineral acids, every animal thus
exposed; thoroughly disinfect the importing ship, and every house, place
or thing the imported stock came in contact with, together with all the
dejections and debris, and even the surface of the graves; make a census
of all cattle within the different quarantined areas, and hold the
owners or custodians responsible, under a heavy penalty, to report every
death and every case of illness; whenever the cattle plague is found in
a place dispose of the entire herd as has already been done with the
infected imported stock, and in a very few weeks the plague can be
completely extirpated. The violence of the individual attack, and the
very short period of latency, makes the work incomparably easier than
the extinction of lung plague. There is never a long period of
uncertainty (incubation), there is virtually never a slight or occult
case of the disease, there is no equivocal chronic form of the
affection. The attack is made boldly and above board, and can be met
successfully if met promptly and energetically. The danger in such cases
lies, less in the nature of the disease, than in the army of foolish,
even if well meaning, meddlers, who denounce the temporary interference
of trade, the payment of indemnities to the cattle owners, the
interference with private property, the destruction of valuable
thoroughbred herds, the interruption of the dairyman’s business, the
cost of disinfection, and a thousand other things, and who too often
succeed in hampering and delaying action, until the infection has
reached and spread over great unfenced territories thereby getting
beyond control, or, short of this, has so established itself as to
necessitate the outlay of a hundred thousand for every hundred that
would have been demanded at first, and a long continued restriction of
trade in place of the very transient interruption required by early,
sharp, decisive action.
One of the most important prerequisites is that every state, but
especially those on the seaboard and with ports of entry, should enact
such laws as would make it possible for the Executive to act at a
moment’s notice and to call in the help of the Federal Government to
make an early and effective application of the only successful remedy.
Most things can wait for the call, assembling and action of a
legislature; the infection of cattle plague can not. Such laws are not
superfluous. If never called for they still show a wise provision
against a terrible, though remote, possibility; if really called for and
they are not found ready, the great cattle industry and even the
agriculture of the continent may be largely sacrificed by the neglect.
As guardian of the interests of The Philippines the United States is
to-day called upon to consider the question of exterminating the disease
which our interference brought upon the islands. On the unfenced lands
of these islands we have to face on a smaller scale the problem of
stamping out the plague which has baffled the wisdom of Europe and Asia.
The individual islands may perhaps be taken independently, the cattle
collected in small herds under fence, and by the sacrifice of a few the
remainder of any herd that shows infection may be immunized, and the
premises where they are confined disinfected until finally no more cases
occur. But whatever method is adopted the seclusion of all within well
fenced areas is the most important consideration. No nation has ever
succeeded in extirpating this nor any other important infection in
animals when they are allowed to run at large and mingle freely, herd
with herd, on unfenced land.