ACTINOMYCOSIS IN THE BLACK MOUNTAIN 
SHEER. 
By W. REID BLAIR, D.V.S. 
UITE recently, while examining several specimens of horned 
game which had been received from the Northwest by Mr. 
Fred. Sauter, taxidermist, of 42 Bleecker Street, New York, Direc- 
tor Hornaday’s attention was called by Mr. Fred. Sauter, Jr., to a 
strange disease that was manifest in several fresh heads of moun- 
tain sheep. In a lot containing the heads of six black mountain 
sheep rams. (Ovis stonei), from the Stickine River country, 
northern British Columbia, the lower jaws of three revealed the 
presence of actinomycosis, or “lumpy-jaw,” in a severe and far 
advanced stage. Two cases were particularly severe, and the 
jaws affected were at once placed by Mr. Sauter at our disposal. 
The specimens referred to above were shot by Mr. Charles A. 
Cass, of Tyrone, Pa., “north of the Stickine River, and also 
north of the Sheslay, not far from a lake called Tach-sa-min-e.”’ 
The presence of this dread disease in wild animals far removed 
from contact with domestic ruminant animals of any kind from 
which it might have been acquired is very starfling. The com- 
plete isolation of the black mountain sheep of the Stickine coun- 
try from all domestic cattle, sheep, prong-horn antelopes, deer, and 
all other animals hitherto known to be infected by lumpy-jaw, 
forces upon us the conclusion, that in this instance it has developed 
independently of infection from domestic animals. 
It is to be hoped that all the Owls stonei now afflicted by this 
deadly disease will be killed by sportsmen before they have time 
to communicate it to all the hoofed animals of their region, and 
especially to the animals of their own species on the south side ot 
the Stickine River. The result of this newly found menace to a 
very important and interesting wild animal will be watched with 
keen, and even painful, interest. It is entirely possible that we 
will witness within a few years the extermination of a large and 
vigorous species by natural causes. 
Actinomycosis is a chronic infective disease which.occurs in 
cattle, hogs, sheep, and horses, and occasionally is met with in 
