Practical Hints : East Coast Fever. 59 



further cases occurred ; this speaks well lor early diagnosis. In 

 order to obtain this desirable result fanners must not rely on their 

 own diagnosis of sickness or deatlis amongst their cattle unless the 

 cause is quite obvious. Smears must be sent from any beast about 

 the death of which there is the slightest suspicion. Do not say a 

 death is due to such diseases as gall-sickness, redwater, vegetable 

 poisoning, snake bite, quarter evil, etc., without sending a smear. It 

 is often impossible for an expert to determine (especially in tick- 

 conveyed diseases) without the aid of the microscope, so always go to 

 the trouble of sending a smear to the proper authorities. 



Taking of Smears. — I would like to give a word of advice here 

 about the taking of smears, as hundreds are forwarded which are quite 

 useless for the purpose of diagnosis for several reasons, the commonest 

 being that they are taken too long after death, with the result that 

 any disease organisms present are obscured by those of putrefaction. 

 Smears are also sometimes taken on improper material, such as 

 coloured glass, convex bottle glass, dirty glass, and even paper. It 

 shonld be remembered that the most reliable diagnosis for East Coast 

 fever is obtained from a smear taken from the inside of a lymphatic 

 gland or the spleen (milt). A bloodsmear is jjot nearly so good, 

 although better than nothing, and is the only material an amateur is 

 likely to obtain successfully from the live animal. In order to make 

 a good smear from a dead animal, the sooner it is taken after death 

 the better. Remove a lymph gland — the one in front of the shoulder 

 is perhaps the easiest to get at — have a piece of thin clean clear glass 

 ready, cut the gland open with a clean knife, then lig-htly draw the 

 surface of tlie glass over the cut surface of the gland and allow it to 

 dry, or, if the spleen is selected, cut it open and remove a little of the 

 contents on the point of a pen knife, spread this as thinly as possible 

 over the glass with tlie edge of the knife ; on no account stick the 

 pieces of glass together like a sandwich with the material in between, 

 as such a method is quite useless. Although, as before mentioned, 

 smears should be taken from a lymph gland or the milt for the 

 diagnosis of East Coast fever, it is as well at tlie same time to send a 

 blood smear taken- from an ear, for then if the disease happens to be 

 redwater, anaplasmosis, trypanosomiasis, or anthrax it can often be 

 diagnosed. 



It is frequently inconvenient for a farmer to attend to take smears 

 from a beast which dies at a native kraal on his property. (I take it 

 every farmer insists on such deaths being reported to him.) To 

 obviate the necessity for personal inspection, show the natives how to 

 remove a lymph gland and instruct them to always bring such a 

 gland from any beast which dies, no matter what they consider has 

 been the cause of death. From this take a smear and forward for 

 microscopical examination. I have personally found this system to 

 answer well on infected farms, as it enables one to know the number 

 of deaths which are occurring and to ascertain also the date of the 

 last death from East Coast fever. 



Possibly fear of the fifteen months' quarantine regulation deters 

 some farmers from being too anxious to know from what disease a 

 beast may have died, but it is undoubtedly better to choose the lesser 

 of the two evils and put up with the quarantine rather than risk the 

 gross infection of their farms with its resultant heavy losses. 



