Vol. XIII. Xo. 320. 



THE AOUICULTURAL NEWS. 



2.51 



Nothing is known yet of its ocfurrence in the West 

 Indies liecause no special investigations have been carried 

 on for the purpose of finding out aljout it. It uiay be 

 that careful search will reveal its presence, and that its 

 attacks may help to explain some of the difficulties which 

 have been puzzling up to the present time. 



NOTES ON LIVE STOCK. 



CONTAGIOUS DISEASES OF CATTLE IN 



GUADELOUPE. 



An interesting ccjunnunieatio)! has liecn received at this 

 office from the Goveriuuent of (Guadeloupe with reference to 

 two reports submitted to that government by the local Veter- 

 inary Officer in charge of a mission under the Pasteur Institute 

 for the purpose of studying the contagious maladies, dealt 

 with in this abstract. 



Taking the fir.st report, certain information concerning 

 anthrax appears to be of interest. The nature and ti-eatineut 

 of this disease is generally well-known throughout the West 

 Indies and it is not necessary to discuss tlie matter in detail 

 here. It is interesting to note, however, that the Veti^rinary 

 Surgeon in Guadeloujie states that the disea.se as it shows 

 itself amongst the cattle in that island is different to that 

 de.scribed in Europe. At first the animals show a little fever 

 together with trenililing throughout the body; then they 

 become in.sane and often endeavour to charge the persons 

 seeing after them. They rest in this condition for .several 

 day.s and die eventually of apoplexy. These symptoms agree 

 with those observed in other ])laces. But in Guadeloupe 

 there is no discharge of blorxl from the orifices nor is haemo- 

 rrhage indicated in the urine nor at no.se which in other 

 countries characterizes anthrax. In [lost mortems, lesions 

 have been found identical to those ol)served in animals in 

 Europe. Vaccination has been adopted in Guadeloupe as 

 regards prevention, but without siu;cess owing, it is liclieved, 

 to the fact tliat the serum has been nM and tlu'rcfnic not 

 virile enongh. 



Turning to the second re[)ort dealing with special work con- 

 ducted under the auspices of the Pasteur Institute, information 

 of interest is given concerning Farcin d'Afrique (^Vfrican 

 farcy) and 'Farcin de boeuf (cattle farcy). It is statetl that 

 the former comjjlaint causes grave losses amongst the animals 

 in Guadeloupe but it is stated to be curalile. In this disea.se 

 the lesions are larger and more massive than in the second com- 

 plaint, and the lymphatic vessels are swollen so that they 

 look like veritable cords. The second malady, 'farcin de 

 boeuf, is caused by a streptf)thrix and is regarded as inciu-- 

 able. There iloes not exist at present any serum capable of 

 curing the malady, but there is reason to l)elieve that treat- 

 ment with potassium iodide would give good results. Some 

 of the symptoms of this disease apparently j-esemble bovine 

 tuberculosis but it is stated that there is no connexion 

 between the two diseases. 



SKIN TEMPERATURE AND FATTENING 

 CAPACITY IN OXEN. 



The ecjuivalent value of various foods employed in the 

 fattening of animals such as sheep and oxen is frequently 



estimated in terms of what is known as the starch ecjuivalent 

 on the Ijasis of the observation, 'that when starch is adtled to 

 a maintenance ration it produces one-quarter of its weight of 

 fat in the animal's bodj' which corresponds to the utilization 

 of between oO and 60 per cent, of the starch. The remain- 

 ing 40 to .50 per cent, of the starch is converted into heat.' 

 On this basis, the starch equivalent of various foods can be 

 be calculated, and from the data so obtained it has been 

 attempted to state what increase in weight in fattening 

 animals may be expected frem the consumption of given 

 quantities of various foods. 



This work is largely associated with the name of 

 Kellner, who is responsible for a considerable amount of valu- 

 able work and information concerning it. 



British experimenters, however, do not find that close 

 agreement between the starch ecjuivalent of the food used 

 and the increase in body weight that was expected (in the 

 above hypothesis. Professor T. B. Wood and Mr. G. 

 Udnyis Vide* have therefore examined the results of a large 

 number of recorded feeding experiments in order to see if 

 the discrepancies admit of explanation. 



As a result they show clearly that, in the process of 

 fattening, the law of diminishing return holds good; that is 

 to say, as the process of fattening goes on it takes larger and 

 larger increments of food to produce equivalent increments of 

 fat, and they state the conclusion, that in their opinions the 

 divergence between Kellner's figures and the results of British 

 feeding trials is due to the fact that in Kellner's experiments 

 really fat animals were never used, whilst in British feeding 

 trial.s, the animals were almost invariably fed until they were 

 ripe for the butcher. 



In the course of the analysis of the records of the experi- 

 ments it was observed that the various animals differed, in 

 some cases materially, in the manner in which they increased 

 in weight with equivalent quantities of food, some animals 

 being nuich more thrifty than others. 



It was agreed that in these cases there must be corre- 

 sponding differences in the amount of heat evolved by the 

 animals; the thrifty animals storing up food largely in relation 

 to the diet supjjlieil, nmst give ofi' less heat than the less 

 thrifty which store less. The idea was therefore put forward, 

 that thrifty animals should show a lower tenqjerature than 

 the unthrifty. 



Preliminary experiments recorded in the scci.ind paper 

 by these authors strongly support these views; it was found 

 that the skin temperature of fattening animals differed con- 

 siderably; that the animals which were making large increases 

 had a lower skin temperature than those making small 

 increases, the differences amounting to about 3°C. This 

 paper gives the details of the manner in which the skin tem- 

 perature is recorded, and its relation to the increases in the 

 weights of the animals. 



The fc)regoing affords interesting instances of the appli- 

 cation of modern scientific methods to farming practice, and 

 indicates how by such means it will be possilile to increase 

 efficiency, and to ettect economies and, as a result, to improve 

 the prospects of the farmer. 



A communication received from Mr. P. T. Saunders, 

 il.lt.C.V.S., of this Department, who is now on leave in 

 England, states that he has been asked by the Chief Veter- 

 inary Officer of the Board of Agriculture, England, to act 

 as an Assistant Secretary in the French Section of the 

 forthcoming International Veterinary Congress, noted on 

 another page of this issue. 



*See the Joiimal of Ayricnliurul Scienee, Vol. VI, Part 2. 



