The Cause and Prevention of Lamziekte. 243 



such as a dry well or jackal-proof camp, where dog's or wild animals 

 cannot get at it. If any animal is suspected of havinj^- died of 

 anthrax it should be liuried and not merely fenced in. 



The veld should also be searched when calves or foals are slipped ; 

 for lost lambs, kids, or ostrich chicks : thoroughly search also for the 

 carcasses or remains of all wild animals, even the small ones such as 

 birds, hares, mierkats, tortoises, etc. 



2. The bones of the animals so collected need not be destroyed, 

 but can be utilized for testing your animals for bone-craving 

 ;iceording to the method described below. 



Such test hones should not be completely bleached, but so selected 

 i'.s to have a slitjhth/ putrid odour, so that only cravers will touch 

 them. They must then be sterilized by boiling or steaming them for 

 one Jiour on each of three successive days. These sterilized bones 

 should still smell putrid, but if properly sterilized will be perfectly 

 harmless. 



3. Now test your entire herd of cattle to find out which animals' 

 are bone-eaters (cravers) and which not. 



To do this, place the sterilized rotten bones in troughs and bring 

 your animals up to them in groups of about ten, leaving them 

 sufficient time to pick up and chew the bones if they wish to. The 

 animals which nre thus proved to be bone-eaters should be removed 

 from the herd. 



4. Now fe^d the bone-eaters icilh. hone meal. 



You need not go to the expense of feeding the other animals 

 which are not cravers and will therefore not get lamziekte. Such 

 animals would still eat sweet bone meal if offered, but they will not 

 j)ick up toxic rotten bones from the veld. 



The craving" can be stopped quickest by giving a large daily 

 ration of bone meal (h lb. to 1 lb.) to each of the bone-eaters. The 

 craving will then disappear in from one to three Aveeks' time. In 

 order to ascertain this, test the animals once a week or once a fort- 

 night. 



When once the craving for bones has stopped :t can be kept down 

 by supplying a small daily ration (3 to 4 oz.) of bone meal. Test 

 the animals regularly to make sure of this. 



The animals Avhich continue to eat the sterilized rotten bones or 

 test bones should receive the large ration until the craving stops. 

 They can then go on to the small ration. 



5. In the meantime the animals that did not eat bones at the 

 first test should be retested to find out whether any of them have 

 since acquired a craving. All such cravers should be removed from 

 the herd and treated in the way indicated above. 



6. The feeding of hone meal is best carried out with a large 

 number of small troughs. If the number of bone-eaters is too large 

 the herd sliould be divided up into two or more lots, each lot to 

 contain not more animnls than the number of troughs available. 



If this is not done, and too few troughs are used, the weaker 

 animals will not get a chance of eating their ration and their craving 

 will not be removed. 



It is advisable to mix a little bran with the bone meal. A little 

 sa.lt may also be added, although this is not really necessary. 



