Vol. XII. No. 004. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



411 



LIVE STOCK NOTES. 



CRUELTY TO OSTRICHES. 



The subject of plumage birds has been very much in 

 •evidence of late, so that the article in the A'/ricuUural 

 Journal of the Union of South Africa (October 1913) on the 

 absence of cruelty in clipping and quilling is likely to receive 

 considerable attention. It is shown in this article that 

 in the earliest stage in the development of a feather, the 

 feather genu is at first merely an up growth of the skin 

 consisting of the epidermis (or skin) surrounding a similar 

 projection of dermis (or under skin). In the second stage of 

 development the germ sinks down into the surface of the skin, 

 the cavity which it occupies being the feather socket or 

 follicle. The portion of the dermis within the epidermis 

 serves to nourish the growing feather. This tissue is called 

 the pith, medulla or pulp and gradually changes into horn. 



The whole question of the possibility of cruelty bears 

 upon these two pith tissues, the dead horny tissue above and 

 the pith, intersected with blood vessels and some nerves, 

 below. It will be understood that these two tissues com- 

 prise the quill; and as the feather ripens, the pith turns into 

 horn continuously. If the feather is cut through or near 

 the base of the horny quill, no bleeding and no pain occur; 

 but if a feather is cut through the pith (which in an 

 immature one, extends at least three-(|uarters of the way 

 up the quill) there will lie profuse haemorrhage and possibly 

 some pain will be felt. 



But even if an immature feather is accidentally plucked 

 or gets broken off or trampled out, it sev^ers its connexion 

 from above the germ, generally at the poit^t where the pith 

 is changing into horn. But the germ is left behind, and 

 another feather will appear in the place of the one prema- 

 turely removed. 



The only operation in ostrich management which can 

 in any way be supposed to suggest cruelty to the bird, is that 

 of drawing the i|uills. After a feather haa been cut, the 

 lower part of the quill is left in the socket to mature, that 

 is, become horny throughout its entire length. It is then 

 a dead structure and entirely devoid of all nerves and blood 

 vessels. It is then pulled out. AVere it not so deeply fixed 

 ■within the socket it would fall out of its own accord. Indeed 

 in time it always does, but this natural moulting is irregular 

 and interferes with a regular crop of plumes. So the farmer 

 strives to avoid this irregularity by doing what nature would 

 have done. 



Testing Ostrich Eggs. -Another article in the 

 same journal gives directions for testing ostrich eggs. The 

 operator should envelop his head and shoulders in a dark 

 cloth, leaving only a small opening before his face, in which 

 the egg is held. He then holds the egg up towards the sun 

 so that he would present the appearance of looking through 

 the egg at the sun. 



A fresh egg presents a yellowish orange appearance, and 

 the yolk may be distinctly seen as a darkish mass floating in 

 the white. In a freshly laid egg, the airspace is only very 

 small. An unfertile egg presents exactly a similar appearance 

 and cannot be detected until incubation has commenced. 



After the seventh day that the eggs have been in the 

 incubator, the germ or embryo of a fertile egg will have 

 grown a little and the airspace will have become much 

 larger. On the seventh day, then, it is generally easy to tell 

 which eggs are fertile and which unfertile. 



MAL DE CADERAS. 



Keference has already been made in the A<jriiui- 

 tural News (see Vol. XII, p. 84.5) to the .South American 

 equine disease called Mai de (.'aderas. In continuation 

 of the subject, the following information received from 

 British Guiana by the Government of Grenada and 

 forwarded to this OHice, will prove interesting. It may 

 be added that the Grenada Agricultural and Com- 

 mercial Society is endeavouring to get steps taken to 

 prevent the introduction of this fata! disease into that 

 Colony. 



The Veterinary Committee of the Board of Agriculture 

 assisted in its deliberations by Dr. E P. Minett, Assistant 

 Government Bacteriologist, Mr. A. C. Farant, F U.C.V-S., 

 and Mr. G. E. Bodkin, Government I'xonomic Biologist, has 

 decided that a disease at present and for some time back 

 prevalent among mules and horses in certain districts of the 

 county of Berbice which had been provisionally described in 

 his reports by the Government Veterinary Surgeon as 

 cerebro — spinal meningitis, is not that disease, and that 

 judging from its characteristic symptoms and from a report 

 by Dr. Minett on an epidemiological survey and investigation 

 made by him into the probable causes of the disease it is the 

 South American equine disease Mai de Caderas. 



SV.MPTOMS. 



The principal symptoms noticed here are: — 



(1) Loss of condition and progressive anaemia with, 

 rapidly increasing weakness, at first with failing appetite but 

 in later stages the appetite is good. 



(2) The temperature of the affected animal is febrile 

 in the early stages of the disease, rising in acute cases to 

 105°F., but falling in later stages to normal (100-2°-10rF.> 

 and tending in chronic stages to become sub-normaf 

 (98°-99°F.). 



(3) The earliest characteristic symptom is the 

 setting in of paralysis in the hindquarters accompanied by 

 dragging and characteristic crossing of the hind-legs. The 

 animal staggers and its hindquarters oscillate from side to side. 

 In the stable it supports itself against a wall, but not infre- 

 quently in the open it falls down. 



(4) Albuminuria and haematuria are noticed in sonio 

 cases, but not in all. 



(5) Eruption may occur on the neck, shoulders an<l 

 hindquarters. Conjunctivitis and chemosis are often present^ 



(6) The disease is a very fatal one; animals may live- 

 from three weeks to as long as five or six months after the 

 setting in of the paralysis but comparatively few, if any, 

 completely recover. 



(7) Animals that apparently recover from the diseasdr 

 are for a prolonged period so weak in the hindquarters as to 

 be useless for draft purposes. 



(8) Animals that have died from the disease shov^ 

 practically no abnormal past mortem conditions other than 

 congestion. 



The accuracy of Mr. Minett s diagnosis of the disease 

 has since been proved by him having found trypana- 

 somes in very large numbers in the blood taken froro 

 affected animals during the earliest acute fertile stage, thns 

 confirming observations made by Mr. Veterinary Surgeon A.C. 

 Farrant, F. ll.C.V.S. These causative organisms are ab.sent 

 from, or have not been found in the blood of affected 

 animals in later stages of the disease. 



Mai de Caderas is confined to horses, mules and asses; 

 it has not been known to attack cattle. 



