58 Journal of the Department op Agriculture. 



PRACTICAL HINTS FOR THE PREVENTION AND 

 ERADICATION OF EAST COAST FEVER. 



By Jas. L. Webb, F.E.C.V.S., G.V.O., Ixopo. 



All tlie information necessary for the prevention and eradication of 

 East Coast fe\'er has from time to time been given to the stock-owning 

 community, and while I can bring forward nothing better than has 

 already been advocated, a reiteration of the methods, together with a 

 few notes on their practical application, may perhaps serve a nsefnl 

 purpose - 



Preventive Measures. 



1. Cattle-proof Fences and Gates around the Farms. — East Coast 

 fever is spread by the dropping of infected ticks ; this may be done by 

 cattle, infected with the disease, being driven or straying on to clean 

 areas, and can to a great extent be obviated by good boundary fences, 

 gates, and fenced roads. Ticks may also be picked up on clothing, 

 blankets, numnahs, hay, thatch, grass, and carried long distances 

 from infected to clean veld. Natives attending feasts on infected 

 areas, and then returning to clean farms, are, to my mind, a possible 

 source of danger in that they are liable to carry infected ticks ; and 

 donkeys with long coats, trekking over infected ground, might pick 

 up ticks which, without attaching themselves, drop off after a time. 

 Ticks may also be carried from infected veld by flooded rivers and 

 deposited on clean areas, so that although good fences are a protec- 

 tion against the principal source of infection it is possible for infected 

 ticks to gain access to clean farms in spite of them. 



2. Regular Dipping and Hand-dressiiig . — I think it can now be 

 taken for g-ranted that farmers recognize the necessity of regular 

 dipping, but many perhaps consider that the immersion of their cattle 

 once every seven days in a standard strength arsenical solution is 

 sufficient to prevent an outbreak of East Coast fever. Such is un- 

 doubtedly not the case ; it will, of course, lessen the number of ticks 

 and minimize the risk, but it will not act as an absolute preventive. 

 It would be necessary to dip every three or five days, and at the same 

 time thoroughly hand-dress the ears and under the tails and the brushes 

 of the tails. I think one might safely say if this were properly 

 carried out it would act as an absolute preventive measure. Farms 

 adjacent to infected areas are, as one would expect, most likely to 

 become infected even although they are properly fenced. This was 

 exemplified in the Ixopo District, where five farms adjoining an 

 infected one, all of them fenced, became infected. On four of these 

 farms the first case was diagnosed and the disease went no further. 

 It is, therefore, obviously necessary to go in for short interval dipping 

 and hand-dressing on farms adjoining badly infected ones. 



3. Diagnosis of the First Ca\se. — The diagnosis of the first case of 

 East Coast fever on a farm is one of the best methods of preventing 

 its further extension. In the Ixopo District, on twelve farms where 

 the first case was diagnosed and active measures taken at once, no 



