554 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



VERMINOUS BRONCHITIS IN CALVES AND LAMBS, AND ITS 

 TREATMENT BY TRACHEAL INJECTIONS. 



Tlie occasional appearance of the disease known as lung •worm dis- 

 easein cattle and sheep, also called verminous bronchitis, the hnsk, hoose, 

 l)arasitic bronchitis, phthisis pulmonalis verminalis, renders it iin])()r- 

 tunt to put together whatever facts are known at present concerning the 

 nature, cause, and treatment of the disease. The primary seat of the 

 affection being the lungs, the disease might, on superficial examination, 

 be confounded with the far more dangerous disease of pleuro-pneumouia, 

 unless t,he symptoms and the means of diagnosis during life, as well as 

 the appearance presented by the lungs on j^ost mortem examination, be 

 carefully noted. The life history of the parasites that are the cause of the 

 disease is not yet fully known, although upon it depends the most im- 

 portant kind of treatment — that of prevention. The following [)ages 

 contain the most advanced views, and it is to be hoped that the near 

 future will convert these views into absolute facts upon which a ra- 

 tional prophylaxis may be based. The disease attacking sheep and 

 goats is due to a nematode worm, Strouf/ijlus Jilaria ; the parasite at- 

 tacking calves, Strongylus micnirus, also found in the horse and ass, is 

 closely related to the former. A third form, common in swine, Strongy- 

 lus 2>aradoxus,do(iS not appear to cause any serious disturbances in swine. 

 In an apparently healthy, fat pig, which was killed at the experimental 

 station hast year for another purpose, plugs of these worms were found 

 in the smaller bronclii, enveloped in mucus. In a severe case of swine 

 plague, these same worms were found in the lungs plugging some of the 

 smaller tubes. The lungs themselves were not hepatized, however, as is 

 frequently the case in swine i)lague, the lesions being limited mainly to 

 the large intestine. Recently this parasite was found by A. Koch [Die 

 Nematoden der Schaflunge, 1883) to infest in large numbers the bronchi 

 of sheep in an epidemic of verminous bronchitis. The same observer 

 also describes another parasite found in the lungs of sheep, the pres- 

 ence of which was characterized by nodular elevations on tlie surface 

 of the lungs containing large numbers of hair-like worms {Pseiidalius 

 ovis puJynonaUs). 



The disease depends, according to most authorities upon the relative 

 humidity of the soil, ami is therefore most prevalent in low-lying, 

 swampy i)astures containing pools of stagnant water. Years of abun- 

 dant rains are said to favor the outbreak of the disease for the same 

 reason. Epizootics have, however, been observed in elevated regions, 

 and in England it is asserted that hill farms suffer most from ravages 

 of Strongylus Jilaria., the lung-worm of sheep. Davaine, eliminating the 

 influence of moisture entirely, states that the only constant features 

 of the disease are age and season. It is probable that outbreaks in 

 elevated regions are exceptional and due to special causes. Young ani- 

 mals, calves from twelve to fifteen months old, and lambs, are most 

 I>roue to suffer, yet cases have occurred in which adult animals have 

 been attacked. Roll reports the disease in a cow eight years old. It 

 is commo)i during late summer and early autumn, although not limited 

 to this period. 



SYMPTOMS. 



The disease symptoms are much alike in lambs and calves, both being 

 due to mechanical obstruction of the smaller air-passages. They begin 

 to appear in lambs and yearlings, when driven to ])asture in spring and 



