346 SCAB IN SHEEP. 



EEPOET ON SCAB IN SHEEP. 

 Bj Hugh Bokthwick, Shepherd, Middlestead, Selkirk. 



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AMONG the diseases of the skin British sheep, especially Scotch, 

 are subject to, the scab stands predominant in frequency of occur- 

 rence, deterioration to the wool, the flesh, and the thriving of the 

 animal ; and if allowed to gain a footing amongst a flock of sheep, 

 and means are not taken to arrest its progress, there is no disease 

 sheep are subject to that spreads witli so ruinous effect both to 

 the flock and flock-master. It attacks young and old, from the 

 suckling lamb of fourteen days to the aged dam of six years old. 

 Its ravages are as severely felt amongst the hardy blackfaced 

 breed of the Highlands, as among the more tenderly constituted 

 breed of the Lowlands ; in fact, there is no variety of breed, 

 age, or condition of sheep able to repel its attacks. If it has 

 fairly gained a footing amongst a hirsel, the contagion is com- 

 municated in a more or less degree according as sheep come 

 in contact with each other. Thus the disease spreads more 

 rapidly amongst a flock of sheep grazing in parks than on the 

 wide and mountainous ranges. Scab in sheep is something 

 akin to itch in the human being ; and amongst flock-masters of 

 experience and good management it is looked upon with the 

 same abhorrence in the sheep as a family of human beings effected 

 with this disease are viewed by every individual they come in 

 contact with. Itch in a human family that has existed for any 

 length of time is denounced by the highest medical authority as 

 the result of ignorance, indolence, or sloth ; and the acute prac- 

 tical stockman does not hesitate to apply the same reprehensible 

 language to his neighbour who allows his stock to be overrun with 

 scab. These are strong assertions, but they are no less strong 

 than true. There is no doubt scab may, and does occasionally, 

 break out amongst the best-managed flocks ; but it is always im- 

 ported, or the result of having come in contact with diseased 

 animals ; but I have never known it spread to any extent if the 

 proper cure is applied with alacrity, which I will afterwards en- 

 deavour to prove. 



The symptoms are easily recognised. In the first stage of 

 the disease, a sheep is observed to bite or pull with its teeth 

 a few fibres from the wool, consequently a spot of a whiter hue 

 is observed than the general colour of the coat, and is com- 

 monly termed "flowering" by shepherds. As the disease ad- 

 vances, the animal becomes very irritable and uneasy, rubbing 

 itself against every projecting part of a dyke, post, or earthen 

 bank that comes in its way, and tearing off the wool with its 

 teeth from every diseased part of the body it can lay hold on. 



