206 Report S.A.A. Advaxckment of Science. 



enter from the Transvaal administration, in spite of the efforts of the 

 Rhodesian authorities to prevent them fi'om moving their cattle wliieh 

 were placed under ((uaiantine. But the main channel by which infec- 

 tion reached this colony was undoubtedly the Delagoa Bay railway, 

 and we now know that Lourenro Marrjues probably became infected 

 with East Coast fever by the importation thereto of cattle from 

 German East Africa about the same time that infected cattle were 

 brought into Rhodesia by way of the Beira railway. The first 

 recorded outbreaks of this disease occurred at Komatipoort and Nel- 

 .spruit in the Barberton district in May, 1902, thence the disease 

 spread to Swaziland, the Kaap Valley and Lydenburg, extending 

 afterwards by road via Middelburg to Pretoria, the infectinn in 

 the Pretoiia district being reinforced by the later introduction of a 

 herd of infected cattle by rail from Barbertoii ; and to the sale and 

 distribution of tliis second herd the outbreaks in the Rustenburg and 

 Maiico <listi-icts must be attributed ; while the northern part of the 

 Middelbui'g district and part of the Zoutpansberg and Waterberg 

 <listricts were probably infected by movements of cattle from Lyden- 

 burg, although, as I liave already stated, part of the Zoutpansberg 

 was in all likelihood infected from Rhodesia. A later and isolated 

 outbreak of East Coast fever also made its appearance at Germiston 

 and Bolvsburg in one of the most elevated parts of the Witwatersrand, 

 as a result of the illicit movement of cattle sent from the infected 

 area of Pietersburg to Johannesburg for slaughter. In addition to 

 the infected areas already mentioned, there lemains the centre of Piet 

 Retief, whence the disease undoubtedly spread from Swaziland. As 

 ma}^ be readily believed, the Veterinary Division of this colony, althougli 

 handicai)ped by having at this time to combat the spread of rinderpest, 

 of which there were no fewer than fourteen outbreaks in 1903, lost no 

 time in undertaking the investigation of the disease, and the experi- 

 ments made by ^lessrs. Theiler and Stockman threw much new light 

 on its character and in the manner of its spread, as they established 

 conclusively that the assumption of Dr. Koch that East Coast fever 

 was spread by the blue tick (E. decohjvatits) was incorrect, antl by 

 their experience came to the same conclusion which was arrived at by 

 Lounsbury, Government entomologist. Cape Colony, that the infecting 

 species were A*, appeudhinlaiiis and R. situns, and in some cases, as 

 was detei-mined at a latei- date by Dr. Theiler, R. Evertsi. The 

 researches of the Transvaal veterinary department led them to adopt 

 a siniilar policy for checking the spread of the disease to tliat carried 

 out in Rliodesia, which they supplemented l)y the stami)ing out of 

 isolated outbix^aks by slaughter and compensation and by the cim- 

 pulsory fencing of farms infected with the disease*. The expense of 

 this fencing was first borne by the Government, who provided tlic 

 funds ;ind subsefpientlv recovered tVom the ownei- in instalments, 

 payments whereof extended over a period of ten years, and althougli 

 the benefits of this policy were not imm(;diately apparent, the results 

 have vindicated the action taken, as the disease has been gradually 

 pushed back into Tiative territory. Several districts have alread}?^ been 



