igi3 ' | Recent Literature. 297 



transmitting anthrax is small. Drs. Darling and Bates show that if is 

 practically impossible by agency of the dejections of the birds, and il is 

 obvious thai the other possible m- »>!<- requiring actual bodily contact of 

 the buzzards with lr not likely to be in operation often. 



An investigation of "Carrion feeders as disseminators of Anthi 

 Charbon," 1 by Dr. Harry Morris, of the Louisiana Agricultural Experi- 

 ment Station, confirms the findings of Drs. Darling and Bates with regard 

 to the destruction of the disease bacilli by the digestive processes of the 

 buzzard. Dr. Muni- says "no anthrax was found in tin- posterior part 

 of the digestive tract, none being found beyond the Btomach, and but 

 little in thai organ. These experiments show quite conclusively thai the 

 anthrax bacteria do oo1 pass through the digestive tract of the buzzard 

 and consequently are not disseminated in the droppings of th< ce scavengers " 

 (p. 6.) 



It was found that anthrax bacilli remain alive upon the beaks and feel 

 of buzzards for at least is hours. The author therefore thinks that 

 pasturage and water might be contaminated in this way, and thus become 

 sources of infection. He says anthrax spores will live in water for /. 

 without decrease in virulence. Fortunately Dr. Morris included other 

 carrion feeders in his experiments. It was found thai (1) "Anthrax spores 

 are not destroyed in the digestive trad of the dog. They were found in 

 the feces six days after anthrax had been fed." (2) "The feces of the hog 

 contained anthrax for a period of live days after eating the spores." (3) 

 "Anthrax was found in the feces of the eat for a period of four days after 

 eating anthrax spores." (4) "Anthrax is not destroyed in the digestive 

 trad of the opposum." (5) "We ^<-y<- unable to produce anthrax in 

 chickens, but the spores were not destroyed in the digestive tract. The 

 feces contained anthrax for a period of forty-eight hours after c-ating 

 ■pores." (6) "Anthrax is present on the bodies and feet and the excre- 

 ment of flies that have been feeding on infected e.n (p. 16.) 

 "What is the imjx>rt ance of this fact? Cobb lias shown that a fly will 

 defecate on an average of once every five minutes, or twelve times an hour. 

 If anthrax spores are excreted for a period of ten hours — and it has been 

 proven thai they are carried for a much longer time — in that time the 

 fly will defecate one hundred and twenty times. The fly after feeding on 

 an infected carcass would doubtless deposil these germ-laden "specks" 

 over a considerable area and may Btarl a number of centers of infection." . . . 

 "Knowing that the fly carries anthrax in the digestive tract and on its 

 body, it is possible thai it is one of the chief causes of our Bevere outbreaks 



of anthrax. Quite often carcaSSI - are allowed to remain where the animal.- 



die, and in these cases the flies eal on the anthrax material, spreading the 

 infection over considerable areas." (p. 13 !■ 



It would appear, therefore, that the buzzard has much the best record 

 of any of the carrion feeders studied, as it is the only one that does not, 



distribute anthrax bacilli in it- feces. Some of the other animals, as the dog, 

 ' Bull. 136, La. Agr. Exp. Sta., Nov. 1912, 16 pp. 



