Texas Fever 11.' 



Q 



have been on the cattle about a week the tick sheds its body coat. After 

 one more week the covering of the body is shed again and the tick is 

 fully equipped with sexual organs and has grown very rapidly. In a 

 few days the female fills her body with blood and drops to the ground 

 laying from 2,000 too, 000 eggs after which she dies. 



The only way Texas fever is transmitted under natural conditions 

 is for the immature tick to attach itself to a cow. As far as is known 

 mature ticks do not go from one cow to another neither will the body 

 wastes of a sick cow impart the disease to a healthy cow. And again 

 the tick itself does not cause the disease, but carries a very minute animal 

 organism called a protozoa, measuring possibly one twelve thousandth 

 of an inch in diameter. This organism throws off from its body a poison-, 

 ous product which is responsible for the symptoms deve;loped in the 

 disease. This minute animal (protozoa) is responsible for breaking 

 up the blood corpuscles which are thrown off with the body wastes of 

 cattle during the disease but most people believe that breaking up of the 

 red corpuscles does not cause the deatb of the cattle but death is caused 

 ^by the poisonous products thrown off by these minute organisms. The 

 protozoa enter the blood of the v^attle when the tick sucks the blood. 



This disease is peculiar to science in that healthy cattle from the 

 south are capable of bringing the disease into a bunch of cattle wMle 

 the southern cattle are uneffected. This is due to the fact that younger 

 cattle often recover and are immune to the disease the remainder of their 

 lives but may carry the ticks into free territory. This immunity has greatly 

 reduced losses in the south. It is a ve^y fatal disease to aged cattle. 

 August and September rre probably the months of the greatest losses. 



SYMPTOMS 



The effected animals have a tendency to isolate themselves from 

 the herd. The appetite and flow of milk decreases, the fevdr is high, 

 anfl the bowels are constipated but later become softer. The urine be- 

 comes deep red in color and 4he animal gets poor rapidly. The blood 

 becomes watery and an incision in the skin often fails to make a flow 

 of blood. After death, if the spleen is examined it will be found to 

 be greatly enlarged. If an incision is made into the spleen it will be 

 a blue grape or black color inside instead of a cherry red. The bile 

 will be flakey and is a very dependable symptom after death. 



