Reports on the diseases of cattle in the United States made to the Commissioner of Agriculture, with accompanying documents. / Department of Agriculture.

  • United States. Department of Agriculture.
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reports on the diseases of cattle in the United States made to the Commissioner of Agriculture, with accompanying documents. / Department of Agriculture. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    98/206 (page 92)
    2. Symptoms. 3. Post-mortem aiipe.arances. 4. Causes and nature of the disease. 5. Cm-ative treatment. 6. Prevention. DEFmiTIOI^. The splenic or j)eriodic fever, commonly known as Texas fever, Span- ish fever, or cattle fever, and whicli has been observed wlierever and whenever cattle from the States or the Gulf of Mexico have been driven north during the summer months, is a disease peculiar to the ox tribe, which has never been described as attaclcing the southern cattle, and which occurs, in a more or less latent form, among tliem. Its distinguish- ing features have been most marked in the cattle of Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, and Indiana, wherever these have grazed on pastures previously or simultaneously occupied by herds from Texas and Florida. It is, so far as we have yet ascertained, incapable of communication by simi)le contact of sick and of healthy animals; and, in the strict sense of the terms, is neither contagious nor infectious. It is an enzootic disorder, j)robably due to the food on wliicli southern cattle subsist, whereby the systems of these animals become (jharged mth deleterious principles, that are afterwards propagated and disi)ersed by the excreta of aj)parently healthy, as well as obviously sick, stock. It is not one of the epizootics proper, and in its origin and disti'ibu- tion differs from the plagues due to speciiic animal poisons which are common in various i)arts of the Old World and the New. The malady is probably incapable of communication by inoculation, and the flesh, blood, .and secretions of such cattle have been handled and consumed by human beings without the manifestation of untoward results. In Texas, cattle of all ages, from the time they begin to graze, are afflicted with the malady in a somewhat latent and mild form. Early in the year many animals die, especially when* the wet deteriorates the grasses; and the mortality, of which any one can gain evidence in crossing Texan prairies and seeing the carcasses, is ascribed to poverty. It is, however, a feature everywhere that cattle do not attain the same weight in the south, even on the best grasses, that they do in northern latitudes; and this is, no doubt, accounted for by the uniform signs of irritation, and even erosions of the stomach, enlarged spleen, fatty liver, and some- times ecchymosis in the kidneys. The disease in its acute form is characterized during life by a long and variable period of incubation, which is most commonly of five or six weeks' duration. The temperature of the body then rises, the secretions are checked, and indications of depression and listlessness are afforded by drooping head, depressed ears, arched back, approximation of limbs, and indisposition to move, or to rise when down. The faeces, usually dry, are sometimes blood-stained; and the urine almost invariably becomes