656 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



The so-called foot and mouth disease occurring in Kansas in 1884 

 was not the infectious disease Aphthous Fever of the old world, but 

 rather gangrenous ergotism so often seen among cattle fed upon 

 grasses affected with that particular fungous growth. The foot and 

 mouth lesions produced are similar in a way to those of the Aphthous 

 Fever and are mistaken as to diagnosis at times especially as to the 

 foot lesions produced. 



The causative agent of the true foot and mouth disease is without 

 doubt an organism very small in size, since it seems to pass the Berk- 

 feld filter, but not the finer Kitasato filter. That it is due to infec- 

 tion, however, is easily appreciated when one remembers that ex- 

 cluded from England in the middle of the eighteenth century it did 

 not recur for a hundred years and then only after being imported, but 

 did not occur at that time in districts where new stock was not taken. 



The infection is especially to be found in the apthae or vesicles of 

 the mouth and interdigital spaces. Abundant drooling of saliva quick- 

 ly and easily infects drinking water, mangers, roads, pastures and 

 halters and therefore readily infects healthy stock following diseased 

 animals. From the vesicles in the interdigital spaces the pastures, 

 floors of stables, and manure are easily infected. From those found 

 on the teats the milk is easily infected as are also the milker's hands 

 and suckling animals or humans consuming the milk. If dried on 

 litter its distribution may be by winds or on the feet of men and 

 animals. The conditions contributing most to the spread of the 

 disease are the free movement of ruminant animals and swine. In 

 countries depending upion central markets for the distribution of 

 livestock wide outbreaks can occur quickly, once the market becomes 

 infected, but the infection is at first confined to those animals which 

 have been in such markets or those associating with them or follow- 

 ing in pens, cars, roads or pastures used by such animals. 



The symptoms are usually a moderate fever after a short period of 

 incubation varying from twenty-four hours to five or six days and 

 occasionally drawn out to two weeks. Cattle usually show the dis- 

 ease within forty-eight hours of first exposure, but there are nearly 

 always a few which do not contract it at all so far as clinical symp- 

 toms will reveal. 



The fever is of course usually accompanied by chill, dry muzzle 

 and erected hair. Redness and tenderness of mouth lining, saliva 

 drooling from the mouth with sometimes froth due to the working 

 of the jaws and a peculiar smacking sound of the tongue on the 

 palate is heard. The result is impaired appetite of course, and even 

 refusal to eat at times, owing to the soreness of the mouth and 

 pharynx. Lameness is noted in some when the foot lesions are found 

 to be severe. The blisters are to be seen on the tongue, mouth lin- 

 ing, in the pharynx and at times on the muzzle, which burst soon after 

 formation, showing a red base clearly defined and may leave shreds 

 of torn epithelium. The interdigital space is the principal seat of 

 the foot lesions where the blister usually is smaller than that of the 

 mouth and often leaves an ulcer after its rupture because of the 

 filth of the stable with which it becomes contaminated. The re- 



