257 

 Worm Disease on Maui. 



On my return from Waipio valley, Hawaii, I stopped on Maui 

 to inspect the new animal quarantine station at Kahului and to 

 get a first hand idea about live stock conditions on that island 

 with special reference to bovine tuberculosis. That my visit 

 proved timely will be seen from the following : In a certain dis- 

 trict (around Spreckelsville ) a considerable number of mules 

 have recently died, nearly all showing symptoms more or less 

 identical with those generally accepted as characteristic of cere- 

 bro-spinal meningitis. In one large plantation stable alone nearly 

 thirty head have died in the course of eight to nine weeks, the 

 course of the disease lasting from less than one hour to several 

 days, but rarely exceeding one week, except in the few cases 

 where recovery ensues. The animals may become affected either 

 while in the stable or while at work in the field. In the latter 

 case there is but slight hope of recovery, the principal symptoms 

 being extreme difficulty of respiration, the animal seeming to suf- 

 focate, with staring eyes, open mouth and more or less profuse 

 hemorrhage from the nostrils. These attacks appear principally 

 on sultry days, the animal breaking out in profuse perspiration, 

 sometimes showing considerable bloating of the abdomen, and 

 soon falling down in the harness and dying in extreme agony. 

 When taken in the stable the symptoms are less severe and more 

 like those of mouldy feed poisoning or spinal meningitis. 



At the urgent request of Dr. Fitzgerald, who was at his wits' 

 end, his losses on one plantation aggregating more in two months 

 than in the preceding two years, I stayed with him in hopes of 

 seeing one or more fresh cases and especially in hopes of exam- 

 ining one or more after death. In the meantime every condition 

 pertaining to live stock sanitation and hygiene was carefully gone 

 into, and while several milder cases were seen it was not until I 

 was ready to return to Honolulu that a typical fatal case occurred. 

 The day was extremely hot and sultry and the animal in ques- 

 tion was hitched to a cultivator when the driver noticed that it 

 had broken out in profuse sweat. Before long it stopped short, 

 the head stretched out straight with eyes popping out and the 

 mouth wide open, and in a few minutes fell to the ground with 

 blood running from both nostrils and death resulting in short 

 order. An hour later when I reached the place the carcass was 

 considerably swollen, the luna in charge being of the opinion 

 that at least some of the swelling was present before the mule 

 died. 



A careful postmortem examination showed extreme infesta- 

 tion of the large body arteries with the armed wire worm or 

 palisade worm (strongytus armatus), some of the aneurisms on 

 the posterior aorta being the size of a hen's egg and filled with 

 a more or less organized blood clot from which protruded the 



