Onchocerciasis in Cattle and Associated Animals. ]\ 



meat drying factories at Bareilly to about 2 per cent, in other 

 districts. Most usually only 1, 2 or 3 are present in each 

 host, but occasionally from 6-10, or even up to 15 and 20, are 

 seen; the animals available for examination were sometimes as 

 young as five or six years, but as usual here, mostly older, e.g., 

 17 to 20 years. The nodules were found in all ages, but were more 

 numerous in the older animals; calcification was often considerable. 



In buffaloes 1 — and they are found in these in all districts and at 

 Agra more commonly than in cattle — the nodules are found " ad- 

 herent to the skin, which becomes thin and hairless just over these 

 nodules, so that the skin is cut when they are dissected out. The 

 worm-nodules among buffaloes are more red than those among 

 oxen, which are white ones." As in the case of cattle, they ana 

 generally attached to the right and left of the sternum at a distance 

 of two or three inches, sometimes in " large numbers, especially in 

 thinner animals," the size of the nodules varying from that of a 

 pea to a pigeon egg. Again the animals in which they were found 

 were 17 and 18 years old. 



The localities whence the Indian cattle carrying these nodules 

 were derived, agree in being normally very dry and hot ,e.g., " Th© 

 climate of Jhansi, as might be expected from the rocky nature of 

 the ground, the rapid drainage, the absence of high jungle, and the 

 general depth of the water level, is characterised by exceeding dry- 

 ness, and by heat considerably above the average of the province " 

 — which is exactly the reverse of the more or less swampy condition^ 

 found wherever the nodules are known in Java, and might at first 

 sight be considered to exclude the possibility of any necessity for the 

 presence of water, either directly or indirectly, for the completion 

 of the life history. But as we find that the soils in these parts- 

 of the United Provinces are either black cotton soils, which " in 

 season of heavy rainfall rapidly become over-saturated," or else- 

 chiefly very good loamy soils, the conditions seem to be present 

 which would allow of the occurrence of standing water in certain 

 seasons at least — quite sufficient for the infection of cattle or 

 buffalo, if such be associated in any way with the method of infec- 

 tion or transmission. 



Before leaving this part of India, it is well to record the experi- 

 ence of Mr. S. H. Gaiger, at one time Parasitologist to the Imperial 

 Bacteriological Laboratory, and now of Lahore. In the course of 

 the post mortems conducted by him at the laboratory at Muktesar 



1 See Addendum 1. 



