142 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



Ai-iiiL 28, 1906. 



ANTHRAX. 



As is well known, anthrax is a very fatal disease. 

 It is a specific disease caused by a bacillus. In the body 

 of an infected animal, the bacilli grow and increase in 

 numbers so rapidly that the poisonous products rjuickly 

 produce death. It might be expected, therefore, that 

 any animal that has died of anthrax will show large 

 numbers of these bacilli in its blood. In the majority 

 of cases this is so. but the following extracts from the 

 Journal of the lioyal Ayrindtural tSocich/, England, 

 1903, show to the contrary in every case : — 



The practice of deliberately feeding pigs witli the flesh 

 of other farm aniniiils unexpectedly found dead, or at least of 

 allowing the pigs access to the carcasses of such animals, is 

 one of the ways in which cases of anthrax are multiplied. 

 Out of a considerable number of cases of this kind that came 

 under notice during the past two years, the following, which 

 is the most recent, may be selected to serve as a warning. 

 Portions of tissues from the head and throat of a pig were 

 sent to the Research Laboratory at the lioyal Veterinary 

 College, with the request that they might bo examined in 

 order to determine wlietber the case had been one of anthrax 

 or not. The liistory given of the case was as follows : — 



The farmer who owned the pig had eight days previously 

 found one of his cattle dead, and he had the carcass skinned 

 and opened in the fold-yard, leaving the internal organs there 

 for the pigs to eat. This occurred on Friday, and on the 

 following Siuiday a pig was found dead. It was examined 

 by a veterinary surgeon, who attributed the death to cotton 

 cake. On Tuesday another pig died, and the case was 

 reported to the police. A second veterinary surgeon examined 

 this carcass, and repeated that it v as ' a suspicious case of 

 anthrax.' The remaining pigs, although more or less ill, 

 ■were killed and dressed, and a third veterinary .surgeon who 

 inspected them expressed the opinion that the disease was 

 not anthrax. A fourth veterinary surgeon was then called 

 in, and, not being able to detect any anthrax bacilli in the 

 blood of the animals, he sent portions of one of the worst 

 affected for examination, as rjientioned above. 



N(iw, in the circumstances set forth in the above 

 Listory, there was no justification for any hesitation in 

 diagnosing the disea.se as anthrax, especially when it is 

 further stated that swelling in the region of the throat was 

 a symptom exhibited by some of the pigs. In the first 

 place, it was the legal duty of the farmer to suspect that the 

 ox which was unexpectedly found dead had died from 

 anthrax ; and when the pigs fed with the flesh or organs of 

 that animal suddenly became ill, with swollen throats, there 

 ivas no room for doubt on the part of the veterinary surgeons 

 that the disease was anthrax. The fact that anthrax 

 bacilli could not be recognized in the blood of the 

 pigs in no way proved the contrarj-, for, as has been 

 pointed out in previous Annual Reports, pigs may die 

 from anthrax before the bacilli have become numerous in 

 the blood. In .such a case, however, the bacilli can always 

 be detected in the tis.sues and glands of the throat, and they 

 were recognized there in the parts of the pig sent by the 

 veterinary surgeon who had failed to find any in the blood. 



The loss of the cattle beast in the above outltreak was 

 an accident, for which the farmer may not have Vieen in anv 



degree responsible. The loss of the pigs was not an 

 accident, but the penalty for an act of culpable ignorance or 

 gross carelessness. The part played by the veterinary 

 surgeons who failed to recognize the nature of the disease- 

 deserves still stronger reprobation, for had the pigs ' carcasses- 

 been sold, the error in diagnosis might have entaikd the 

 sacrifice of human life. 



This case should act a.s a warning, and therefore, 

 any animal on an estate that dies suddenly of suspected' 

 anthrax should immediately be buried deeply with 

 quick-lime. On no account should such a carcass be 

 opened. Unless these jjrecautionary measures are 

 taken, the disease may spread rapidly and occasion 

 severe losses. 



TREATMENT OF ANTHRAX. 

 (Concluded from j). 1l'5.) 



A bacteriolytic serum prepared by injecting protected 

 animals w ith large quantities of virulent cultures has been used 

 with great success as a curative agent for local anthrax (malig- 

 nant pustulel. This has led of late to a few experimental 

 trials with serum on animals. The history and pathology of 

 anthrax in the latter, however, lead one to believe from the 

 first that a serum can have a very limited application either 

 as a curative or iireventive agent. As a preventive, its action 

 like that of other sera can only be very temporary, whereas 

 the spores of anthrax on infected pastures persist indefinitely. 

 It begins, however, to act almost immediately after injection, 

 and might be usefully employed temporarily to im'nuuiize 

 apparently healthy animals before shifting them from infected 

 to clean ground. In infected countries where animals are 

 travelled long distances by road, and every farm on the route 

 is a common grazing ground, one could conceive that if, in 

 the event of an outbreak, serum were injected into those 

 exposed to infection before moving them on, much might be 

 done tfi check the .spread of anthrax along main roads. As 

 a curative agent, little can be expected from serum, because 

 one seldom suspects anthrax until an animal is found in 

 a dying condition, when it is highly iiroliable the bacilli have 

 already invaded the blood .stream. One knows, however, 

 that in outbreaks of anthrax the fatalities are generally 

 few, even when a S"urce nf infection exists wliich there is 

 reason to believe has acted on more than one animal on an 

 establishment. Those in contact sometimes .show a febrile 

 condition, which raises in one's mind the possiliility of their 

 being abo infected. One could imagine that in .such cases, 

 a serum might be advantageously employed on the animals 

 in contact, but it must not be forgotten that for curative 

 purposes very considerable doses of .such a serum mu^t be 

 used for the larger animals. 



Serum may also prove useful in modifying the efi'ects of 

 the vaccine either before inoculation, or when the inoculated 

 give signs of being darjgerously affected by the operation. 

 Carini enqiloyed serum in this way, )jut his recorded successes 

 are not brilliant. 



Sobernheini states that for iirotectivc purposes he has 

 used a combination of serum and culture. The two 

 materials are injected at difterent parts of the body at the 

 same time, and no second inoculation is required. He also 

 states that "ri.OOO oxen, .sheep, and horses have beei> 

 operated on by this method with a loss of 01 per cent. The 

 objection to such a method is that the protective power of 

 the scrum is sometimes so great that the culture fails to act 

 severely enough to give a lasting imnninity. 



